Stability of Alfven modes in a collisionless anisotropic plasma confined by a highly curved magnetic field

The stability of Alfven modes in a collisionless plasma with an anisotropic pressure in a highly curved magnetic field is studied. A linearized equation for describing longitudinally nonuniform MHD perturbations with frequencies below the bounce frequency is derived. In this equation, the perturbations of longitudinal and transverse pressures are calculated using a collisionless kinetic equation. It is shown that longitudinal fluxes of the transverse and longitudinal plasma energies give rise to pressure perturbations different from those in the Chew-Goldberger-Low collisionless hydrodynamics. The corresponding energy principle is constructed. A stability criterion for Alfven modes is obtained and is found to be more stringent than that in the Chew-Gold-berger-Low model.