Magnetic field gradient effects on Rayleigh-Taylor instability with continuous magnetic field and density profiles

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of magnetic field gradient (i.e., the magnetic field transition layer effects) on the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) with continuous magnetic field and density profiles are investigated analytically. The transition layers of magnetic field and density with two different typical profiles are studied and the analytic expressions of the linear growth rate of the RTI are obtained. It is found that the magnetic field effects strongly reduce the linear growth rate of the RTI, especially when the perturbation wavelength is short. The linear growth rate of the RTI increases with the thickness of the magnetic field transition layer, especially for the case of small thickness of the magnetic field transition layer. When the magnetic field transition layer width is long enough, the linear growth rate of the RTI can be saturated. Thus when one increases the width of the magnetic field transition layer, the linear growth rate of the RTI increases only in a certain range, which depends on the magnetic field strength. The numerical results are compared with the analytic linear growth rates and they agree well with each other.