Magnetic curvature driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability revisited
The problem of incomplete finite ion Larmor radius (FLR) stabilization of the magnetic curvature driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) in low beta plasma with homogeneous ion temperature is investigated. For this purpose a model hydrodynamic description of nonlinear flute waves with arbitrary...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2011-02-01
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| Series: | Annales Geophysicae |
| Online Access: | https://www.ann-geophys.net/29/411/2011/angeo-29-411-2011.pdf |
| Summary: | The problem of incomplete finite ion Larmor radius (FLR)
stabilization of the magnetic curvature driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability
(RTI) in low beta plasma with homogeneous ion temperature is investigated.
For this purpose a model hydrodynamic description of nonlinear flute waves
with arbitrary spatial scales compared to the ion Larmor radius is
developed. It is shown that the RTI is not stabilized by FLR effects in a
plasma with cold electrons when the ratio of characteristic spatial scale of
the plasma inhomogeneity to local effective radius of curvature of the
magnetic field lines is larger than 1/4. The crucial role in the absence of
the complete FLR stabilization plays the contribution of the compressibility
of the polarization part of the ion velocity. |
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| ISSN: | 0992-7689 1432-0576 |