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Dissipative instability of the MHD tangential discontinuity in magnetized plasmas with anisotropic viscosity and thermal conductivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

M. S. Ruderman ,
E. Verwichte ,
R. Erdélyi  and
M. Goossens
M. S. Ruderman
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Astrophysics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
E. Verwichte
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Astrophysics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
R. Erdélyi
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Astrophysics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
M. Goossens
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Astrophysics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
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Abstract

The stability of the MHD tangential discontinuity is studied in compressible plasmas in the presence of anisotropic viscosity and thermal conductivity. The general dispersion equation is derived, and solutions to this dispersion equation and stability criteria are obtained for the limiting cases of incompressible and cold plasmas. In these two limiting cases the effect of thermal conductivity vanishes, and the solutions are only influenced by viscosity. The stability criteria for viscous plasmas are compared with those for ideal plasmas, where stability is determined by the Kelvin—Helmholtz velocity VKH as a threshold for the difference in the equilibrium velocities. Viscosity turns out to have a destabilizing influence when the viscosity coefficient takes different values at the two sides of the discontinuity. Viscosity lowers the threshold velocity V below the ideal Kelvin—Helmholtz velocity VKH, so that there is a range of velocities between V and VKH where the overstability is of a dissipative nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , October 1996 , pp. 285 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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