Instability of a liquid jet in a high-frequency alternating electric field

Stability of a liquid (electrolyte) jet in a tangential electric field harmonically oscillating with a high frequency is considered under an assumption of an ideal liquid. It is demonstrated that it is possible to solve the electrodynamic and hydrodynamic parts of the problem inside the jet separately if the Peclet number based on the Debye layer thickness is small. Linear stability of the trivial solution of the problem is studied. A dispersion relation is derived, which is used to study the effect of the amplitude and frequency of electric field oscillations on jet stability. An increase in the amplitude of oscillations is demonstrated to exert a stabilizing effect, whereas an increase in frequency leads to insignificant destabilization of the jet.