A derivation is presented for the Lorentz selfhyphen;force arising from the interaction of a slender current loop of arbitrary shape with its own magnetic field. The selfhyphen;force on any loop segment depends explicitly on the global shape of the remainder of the loop. Calculations of the selfhyphen;force are presented for various model loops. For loops having small to moderate noncircularity, it is shown that the selfhyphen;force on a segment with local major (R) and minor (a) radii is approximately that for an axisymmetric torus having uniformRanda. These properties of the selfhyphen;force critically influence the equilibrium and dynamics of thin current loops in solar and astrophysical plasmas.
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