Effects of neutral gas friction and ion viscosity on the Rayleigh--Taylor instability of a stratified plasma in the presence of Hall currents
The effects of neutral gas friction, on the Rayleigh-- Taylor instability of an infinitely conducting plasma of variable density, wlth ion viscosity and Hall currents, were investigated. For an ambient horizontal magnetic field, it was shown that the solution was characterized by a variational principle. Making use of the existence of this, proper solutions were obtained for a semiinfinite plasma, in which the density was stratified exponentially along the vertical, confined between two planes. In the simultaneous presence of the effects of ion viscosity and Hall currents, it was found that the potentially unstable stratification was unstable for all wavenumber perturbations, irrespective of whether or not the effects of neutral gas friction were included. Further, it was found that the growth rate increased with both Hall currents and neutral gas friction, and decreased with ion viscosity. The influence of the Hall currents and the neutral gas friction, therefore, was destabilizing, while that of ion viscosity was stabilizing. In the absence of Hall currents, it was found that the viscous plasma was stable, even for a potentially unstable stratification, for perturbations confined to a cone about the magnetic field vector. The angle of the cone of stable propagation of an inviscid plasma, however, decreased with both Hall currents and effects of neutral gas friction. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Jodhpur, India
- NSA Number:
- NSA-29-025787
- OSTI ID:
- 4326062
- Journal Information:
- J. Plasma Phys., v. 11, pp. 1-10, Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 30-JUN-74; Bib. Info. Source: UK (United Kingdom (sent to DOE from))
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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