Rayleigh-Taylor instability in inhomogeneous relativistic classical and degenerate electron-ion magnetoplasmas

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in relativistic magnetoplasmas with various electron degeneracy states, providing a generalized growth rate expression applicable to laboratory and astrophysical plasmas.

Contribution

It derives a comprehensive growth rate formula for RTI in relativistic, degenerate, and nondegenerate electron-ion magnetoplasmas, extending previous theories.

Findings

Growth rate expression applicable to different degeneracy regimes

Analysis of RTI in relativistic and degenerate plasma conditions

Relevance to laboratory and astrophysical plasma environments

Abstract

We study the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) of electrostatic plane wave perturbations in compressible relativistic magnetoplasma fluids with thermal ions under gravity in three different cases of when (i) electrons are in isothermal equilibrium, i.e., classical or nondegenerate, (ii) electrons are fully degenerate (with $T_e=0$), and (iii) electrons are partially degenerate or have finite temperature degeneracy (with $T_e\neq0$). While in the cases of (i) and (iii), we focus on the regimes where the particle's thermal energy is more or less than the rest mass energy, i.e., $\beta_e \equiv k_{\mathrm B}T_e/{m_ec^2}<1~\rm{or}~>1$, the case (ii) considers from weakly to ultra-relativistic degenerate regimes. A general expression of the growth rate of instability is obtained and analyzed in the three different cases relevant to laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, which generalize and advance the previous theory on RTI.