Self-organization of an ordered structure occurs in a plasma under rather restrictive conditions. A new framework for a variational principle invokes a coercive form that results in a criterion for self-organizing relaxation of a two-fluid plasma. The constraints (constants of motion of the ideal model) are adjusted, through a weakly dissipative process, so that the relaxed state, under well-defined conditions, is a stable equilibrium independent of the direct effects of dissipation.

• Received 24 October 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.095001