Stability of interchange modes in a hot electron plasma

A self-consistent electromagnetic theory is presented, for arbitrary β, of the flute-interchange mode of a hot-electron plasma where the hot-electron guiding-center drift frequency may be comparable to or larger than the ion-cyclotron frequency. In the presence of bad curvature, an interchange instability exists at small and large precessional frequency, and this instability is stabilized by cold electrons. Electromagnetic theory introduces finite-β corrections that only modify the results of a simple electrostatic theory that includes only the external drifts.