Rayleigh-Taylor instability in an equal mass plasma

Abstract

The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in an inhomogeneous pair-ion plasma has been analyzed. Considering two fluid model for two species of ions (positive and negative), we obtain the possibility of the existence of RT instability. The growth rate of the RT instability as usual depends on gravity and density gradient scale length. The results are discussed in context of pair-ion plasma experiments. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

Rayleigh-Taylor vortices in a pair-ion plasma

“…11 Also, due to the nonlinear interactions (mode coupling), shear flow generates self-consistently, which reduces the growth rate of interchange-like instability and thereby saturates the RT instability. 12 Apart from these works, our recent work shows that the RT instability is profoundly present in a pair-ion plasma 13 consisting of fullerene positive and negative ions (C þ 60 and C À 60 ) with equal masses. Such type of pair plasmas have been observed in laboratory.…”

“…[29][30][31] Note that / 0 and n 0 are not the equilibrium electrostatic potential and equilibrium density, respectively. The electrostatic potential and the density can be represented as / ¼ / 0 sin k x x þ / 1 sin k x x sin k y y þ / 2 sin2k x x cos k y y; (13) n ¼ n 0 sin 2k x x þ n 1 sin k x x cos k y y þ n 2 sin 2k x x sin k y y: (14) Substituting the above equations in the basic equations (6) and (7), we obtain the following differential equations of Fourier coefficient:…”