ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the equations describing the equilibrium motion of particles of a collisionless plasma in a curvilinear magnetic field. It examines each particle by its longitudinal and transverse velocities. The chapter considers trapped-particle motion in the field of tokamak geometry. It also considers the equilibrium distribution function and macroscopic parameters of a collisionless plasma. The chapter presents the part of this function which is averaged over Larmor oscillations as an arbitrary function of energy, magnetic moment and transverse coordinates of particles. It outlines the part of the distribution function proportional to the Larmor oscillations. Knowledge of the perturbed distribution function allows one to find the perturbed plasma pressure and thereby to derive starting equations for perturbations in the ideal region. The behaviour of a plasma component in an electromagnetic field slowly varying in time and space can be described by the drift kinetic equation.
