The Stability of Shear Flow of Viscous Electrically Conducting Fluid in the Presence of Velocity and Magnetic Shears

Abstract

Abstract 
 The linear stability of shear flow of an incompressible, viscous electrically conducting fluid permeated by sheared magnetic field is investigated. An unbounded two layer model consisting of different viscosity and magnetic diffusivity fluids with different velocity shear and magnetic shears is examined for the two dimensional disturbances. An analytical study using the short wavelength approximation shows that the configuration is always unstable for different diffusivities and for different shears. When the magnetic field does not vanish on the interface it may be stabilizing or destabilizing the system depending on the values of certain parameters.
 Key words: Stability, shear flow, electrically conducting fluid, unbounded two layer model magnetic shear, short wavelength approximation