Critical Magnetic Number in the MHD Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Abstract

We reformulate in Lagrangian coordinates the two-phase free boundary problem for the equations of Magnetohydrodynamics in a infinite slab, which is incompressible, viscous and of zero resistivity, as one for the Navier-Stokes equations with a force term induced by the fluid flow map. We study the stabilized effect of the magnetic field for the linearized equations around the steady-state solution by assuming that the upper fluid is heavier than the lower fluid, $i. e.$, the linear Rayleigh-Taylor instability. We identity the critical magnetic number $|B|_c$ by a variational problem. For the cases $(i)$ the magnetic number $\bar{B}$ is vertical in 2D or 3D; $(ii)$ $\bar{B}$ is horizontal in 2D, we prove that the linear system is stable when $|\bar{B}|\ge |B|_c$ and is unstable when $|\bar{B}|<|B|_c$. Moreover, for $|\bar{B}|<|B|_c$ the vertical $\bar{B}$ stabilizes the low frequency interval while the horizontal $\bar{B}$ stabilizes the high frequency interval, and the growth rate of growing modes is bounded.