Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
The effect of curvature of magnetic field lines on plasma instabilities due to a large gradient of the ion temperature has been studied. It is shown that none of the discussed effects can be obtained so long as the curvature of magnetic field lines is simulated by a fictional gravitation field. In configurations with large enough minimum-B, the usual temperature-gradient instability is stabilized in collisionless plasma. However, a new dissipative instability arises due to ion–ion collisions with the maximum growth rate γmax ˜ Vii/40.