On the Rayleigh—Taylor instability in hydromagnetics with finite electrical resistivity and Hall current

Abstract

The effect of Hall current and finite electrical resistivity has been studied on the Rayleigh—Taylor instability of superposed incompressible fluids in the presence of a uniform horizontal magnetic field. It is found that Hall current has a negligible stabilizing influence in the high resistivity limit whereas it has a destabilizing influence in the low resistivity limit.