This is Part II of a study of resonant perturbations, such as resistive tearing and ballooning modes, in a torus. These are described by marginal ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in the regions between resonant surfaces; matching across these surfaces provides the dispersion relation. Part I [Phys. Fluids B3, 1532 (1991)] described how all…
In a cylindrical plasma, tearing modes can be calculated by asymptotic matching of ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) solutions across a critical layer. This requires a quantity that represents the “discontinuity*’ in the ideal solution across the layer. In a torus, poloidal harmonics are coupled and there are many critical surfaces for each toroi…