On the Stability of Cylindrical Tangential Discontinuity, Generation and Damping of Helical Waves

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the stability of cylindrical interfaces in fluids and plasmas, showing that helical waves in different contexts are governed by the same physics and can be simulated in laboratory settings.

Contribution

It demonstrates that helical waves in plasma tails and water jets are described by a unified dispersion relation, linking astrophysical phenomena with laboratory experiments.

Findings

Helical waves are described by a common dispersion equation.

Magnetic fields and surface tension have similar stabilizing effects.

Resonance damping of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is demonstrated.

Abstract

Stability of cylindrical interface between two ideal incompressible fluids, including the magnetic field, surface tension and gravitational field is studied in linear approximation. We found that helical waves arising both in plasma comet tails and on the vertical cylindrical water jet in the air are described by the same dispersion equation where the comet tail magnetic field plays the same stabilizing role as surface tension for water jet. Hence they represent the same phenomenon of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Thus helical waves in comet tails and astrophysical jets may be simulated in the laboratory. The resonance nature of the Kelvin- instability damping is demonstrated.