The internal waves and Rayleigh-Taylor instability in compressible quantum plasmas

Journal Article · Sat Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3652885· OSTI ID:22047020

Lu, H L ^[1]; Qiu, X M ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Yunnan University of Nationalities, Kunming 650031 (China)
2. Southwestern Institute of Physics, P. O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041 (China)

In this paper, we investigate the quantum effect on internal waves and Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in compressible quantum plasmas. First of all, let us consider the case of the limit of short wavelength perturbations. In the case, the dispersion relation including quantum and compressibility effects and the RT instability growth rate can be derived using Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin method. The results show that the internal waves can propagate along the transverse direction due to the quantum effect, which was first pointed out by Bychkov et al.[Phys. Lett. A 372, 3042 (2008)], and the coupling between it and compressibility effect, which is found out in this paper. Then, without making the approximation assumption of short wavelength limit, we examine the linearized perturbation equation following Qiu et al.'s solving process [Phys. Plasmas 10, 2956 (2003)]. It is found that the quantum effect always stabilizes the RT instability in either incompressible or compressible quantum plasmas. Moreover, in the latter case, the coupling between it and compressibility effect makes this stabilization further enhance.

• OSTI ID: 22047020
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 18; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COMPRESSIBILITY
DISPERSION RELATIONS
DISTURBANCES
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
INTERNAL WAVES
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
QUANTUM PLASMA
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
STABILIZATION
WKB APPROXIMATION