Dynamics of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Plasma Fluids

Abstract

The chapter discusses the evolution of Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) in ordinary fluids and in a plasma fluid. RT instability exits in many situations from overturn of the outer portion of the collapsed core of a massive star to laser implosion of deuterium-tritium fusion targets. In the mixture of fluids, the instability is triggered by the gravitational force acting on an inverted density gradient. The motivation behind the study of the instability has been explored by discussing the applications of RT instability. The basic magnetohydrodynamics equations are used to derive the dispersion relation (for an ordinary fluid and plasmas) for two fluids of unequal densities. The conditions of the growth rate of the instability and the propagating modes are obtained by linearizing the fluid equations. The perturbed potential is found to increase with the plasma parameters in a Hall thruster.