The Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Three Dimensions

TL;DR

This study investigates the three-dimensional magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability, revealing how different magnetic field configurations influence the nonlinear evolution, mixing, and morphology of the instability, with implications for astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how strong magnetic fields and their configurations affect the nonlinear development and morphology of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in three dimensions.

Findings

Strong magnetic fields do not suppress instability but reduce mixing.

Magnetic fields aligned with the interface can increase growth rates of bubbles and fingers.

Changing magnetic field direction at the interface produces long, isolated fingers.

Abstract

We study the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability in three dimensions, with focus on the nonlinear structure and evolution that results from different initial field configurations. We study strong fields in the sense that the critical wavelength l_c at which perturbations along the field are stable is a large fraction of the size of the computational domain. We consider magnetic fields which are initially parallel to the interface, but have a variety of configurations, including uniform everywhere, uniform in the light fluid only, and fields which change direction at the interface. Strong magnetic fields do not suppress instability, in fact by inhibiting secondary shear instabilities, they reduce mixing between the heavy and light fluid, and cause the rate of growth of bubbles and fingers to increase in comparison to hydrodynamics. Fields parallel to, but whose direction changes at, the interface produce long, isolated fingers separated by the critical wavelength l_c, which may be relevant to the morphology of the optical filaments in the Crab nebula.