Energy-Casimir stability of hybrid Vlasov-MHD models

Abstract: Different variants of hybrid kinetic-fluid models are considered for describing the interaction of a bulk fluid plasma obeying MHD and an energetic component obeying a kinetic theory. Upon using the Vlasov kinetic theory for energetic particles, two planar Vlasov-MHD models are compared in terms of their stability properties. This is made possible by the Hamiltonian structures underlying the considered hybrid systems, whose infinite number of invariants makes the energy-Casimir method effective for determining stability. Equilibrium equations for the models are obtained from a variational principle and in particular a generalized hybrid Grad-Shafranov equation follows for one of the considered models. The stability conditions are then derived and discussed with particular emphasis on kinetic particle effects on classical MHD stability.