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Hall Currents and the Rayleigh‐Taylor Instability of a Finitely Conducting Plasma in the Presence of Coriolis Forces
Author(s) -
Sankhla V. D.,
Bhatia P. K.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
beiträge aus der plasmaphysik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0005-8025
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.19780180402
Subject(s) - rayleigh–taylor instability , instability , physics , condensed matter physics , compressibility , electrical resistivity and conductivity , wavenumber , plasma , mechanics , viscosity , growth rate , classical mechanics , mathematics , thermodynamics , geometry , quantum mechanics
We have studied the effect of rotation on the development of Rayleigh‐Taylor instability of an incompressible, viscous, Hall, finitely conducting plasma of variable density. The solution is developed, through variational methods, for a semi‐infinite plasma in which the density varies exponentially along the vertical. It is found that the system is unstable for all wave numbers when the effects of magnetic resistivity are included. The effects of coriolis forces and viscosity on the growth rate of the unstable system are found to be stabilizing while that of Hall currents is destabilizing. Finite conductivity affects the growth rate of the unstable mode differently for the smaller and larger values of the wave numbers, destabilizing for the waves of large wave length and stabilizing for waves of small wave length.