The stability of a low-beta spheromak with a perfectly conducting cylindrical boundary of length L and radius R is analyzed in terms of force-free fields with J = λB(λ = const). The axisymmetric equilibrium is found unstable to tilting when the elongation L/R is larger than about 1.67. Numerical solutions of the time-dependent ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations confirm this result.
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Bondeson et al. (1981) studied this question.
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