Effects of Hall currents on the instability of a gravitating partially ionized plasma in a two dimensional horizontal magnetic field

Abstract

The instability in a stratified layer of a self-gravitating infinitely conducting incompressible inviscid partially ionized plasma has been studied in the presence of effects of Hall currents, for a plasma permeated by a uniform two dimensional horizontal magnetic field, the proper solution has been obtained through the use of a variational principle which is shown to characterize the problem for a plasma in which the density is stratified exponentially along the vertical, the dispersion relation has been derived. Numerical calculations of the growth rate of the unstable modes of propagation have been performed from the dispersion relation for different values of the physical effects. It is found that the Hall currents have a destabilizing effect while the neutral gas frictional effects have a stabilizing influence on the instability of a conducting plasma.