Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 75 2 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Suppress the common Fourier mode factor and define the transverse and full divergences of the fluid Lagrangian displacement byThe perturbed magnetic field is . Its components areThus the magnetic part of the energy integrand isUse from force balance. The pressure-gradient cross term isThe current term has the azimuthal cross-product component , givingEvery term involving cancels in the sum, including the possibly complex terms. The magnetohydrodynamic energy principle therefore reduces exactly toFor physical and positive adiabatic index , every surviving term is nonnegative. On the admissible displacement domain for the supplied functional, squared ideal-mode frequencies cannot be negative. This is the positive ideal energy of a theta pinch, proving absence of exponentially growing ideal modes. The qualification is stable or marginal, not strictly positive energy for every motion: at , suitable incompressible displacements can have zero energy. As usual, the energy principle presumes regularity and boundary conditions eliminating unwanted surface terms; additional external systems are not part of the given functional.