INFLUENCE OF HIGHER ORDER TOROIDICITY ON COUPLING OF TEARING MODES

he general dispersion relation for toroidally coupled tearing mode including pressure and other O(\varepsilon²) order corrections is naturally derived based on the structure of ideal magnetohydro-dynamic solutions in the outer region. It is found that the inclusion of the O(\varepsilon²) order terms in the diagonal element of E-matrix does not change physical properties of the toroidally coupled tearlng mode and only make negligible contribution to the magnitude of growth rate.