Stability of a conducting rotating fluid of variable density

Abstract

The Rayleigh instability of an incompressible, infinitely conducting, inviscid fluid of variable density is investigated under the influence of an horizontal magnetic field and coriolis forces. After establishing the equations of the problem when both the density and the magnetic field vary with distance in the upward direction, two special cases of density distribution are studied in detail. Both the magnetic field and coriolis forces are found to have a stabilizing influence on the configuration and further it is concluded that they may bring about stability in the configuration when it is thoroughly unstable without them.