Subcritical mirror structures in an anisotropic plasma

Based on Grad–Shafranov-like equations, a gyrotropic plasma where the pressures in the static regime are only functions of the amplitude of the local magnetic field is shown to be amenable to a variational principle with a free energy density given by the parallel tension. This approach is used to demonstrate that small-amplitude static holes constructed slightly below the mirror instability threshold identify with lump solitons of KPII (Kadomtsev–Petviashvili) equation and turn out to be unstable. It is also shown that regularizing effects such as finite Larmor radius corrections cannot be ignored in the description of large-amplitude mirror structures.