Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
Self-consistent infinitesimal perturbations of electron density and electric field are used to analyse the stability of the plasma. The axisymmetric perturbations are stable for any magnetic and electric field strengths. The non-axisymmetric perturbations with azimuthal modes m ≥ 1 and less than a certain integer are unstable for certain ranges of magnetic and electric fields. The mode m = 2 can be more unstable than the mode m = 1. Previous analysis by other authors was confined to the case m = 1 and the perturbations were not self-consistent. Our results differ significantly from the earlier results.