Equilibrium and stability in strongly inhomogeneous plasmas

The equilibrium of strongly inhomogeneous, collisionless, slab plasmas, was studied. A generalized version of a formalism previously developed, which permits the generation of self consistent equilibria, for plasmas with arbitrary magnetic shears, and variation of magnetic field strength was used. A systematic procedure was developed for deriving the form of the guiding center Hamiltonian K, for finite eta, in an axisymmetric geometry. An expression for the first adiabatic invariant (the gyroaction) was derived. A formalism was developed for the study of the stability of strongly inhomogeneous, magnetized slab plasmas and applied to the ion drift cyclotron instability.