Instability of a charged layer of a viscous liquid on the surface of a solid spherical core

The dispersion relation for the spectrum of capillary waves of a spherical layer of a viscous liquid coating a solid spherical core with a layer of finite thickness is introduced and analyzed. It is shown that the existence of two mechanisms for the viscous dissipation of the energy of the capillary-wave motions of the liquid, viz., damping in the bulk of the layer and on the solid core, leads to restriction of the spectrum of the realizable capillary waves of the liquid on both the high-and low-mode sides. At a fixed value of the system charge which is supercritical for the first several capillary modes, the maximum growth rates in the case of a small solid core are possessed by modes from the middle of the band of unstable modes, while in thin liquid layers the highest of the unstable modes have the largest growth rates. This points out differences in the realization of the instability of the charged surface of the spherical layer for small and large relative sizes of the solid core. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 8–13 (September 1997)     

Mode selection in weakly unstable two-dimensional detonations

A formulation of the reactive Euler equations in the shock-attached frame is used to study the two-dimensional instability of weakly unstable detonation through direct numerical simulation. The results are shown to agree with the predictions of linear stability analysis. Comparisons are made with linear perturbation growth rates and oscillation frequencies as a function of transverse disturbance wavelength. The perturbation eigenfunctions predicted by linear stability analysis are directly validated through numerical simulation. Three regimes of unstable behavior – linear, weakly nonlinear, and fully nonlinear – are explored and characterized in terms of the power spectrum of the normal shock velocity for a Chapman–Jouguet detonation with weak heat release.     

Relativistic Cloud-In-Cell Simulation of Free Electron Laser

We have developed one-and a half-dimensional (one space dimension and two velocity components) relativistic electromagnetic cloud-in-cell simulation (CIC-R) code which is suitable for simulating the free-electron laser process. Using CIC-R we have simulated the temporal evolution of the free-electron laser, and obtained the results on the linear growth rates of the unstable spectrum and the dispersion relation of the coupling between the electromagnetic waves and electrostatic waves which agree with the theory. Other results such as the time development of the electron distribution function, nonlinear saturation and the efficiency of energy conversion are also presented in detail.     

Modified jeans instability for dust grains in a plasma

An investigation of the properties of linear stability is conducted for a system consisting of particles having mass m and charge q, interacting through the gravitational and electrostatic force (Jeans instability). However, in light of recent works showing that dust particles in a plasma can have a Lennard-Jones-like shielding potential, a new set of equations has been derived, where the electrostatic interaction among the dust particles is Lennard-Jones-like instead of Coulomb-like. A new condition for the gravitational instability is derived, showing a broader spectrum of unstable modes with faster growth rates.     

Influence of charge relaxation on the capillary disintegration of a jet of a viscous dielectric liquid placed in an electrostatic field collinear with the axis of the jet

A dispersion relation is derived for capillary waves with an arbitrary symmetry on the surface of a charged jet of a finite-conductivity viscous liquid placed in an electric field collinear with the axis of the jet. Analytical calculations are carried out in an approximation that is linear in dimensionless wave amplitude. In the case of axisymmetric waves, the instability of which causes disintegration of the jet into drops, the finiteness of the potential equalization rate has a noticeable effect only for jets of poorly conducting liquids. The charge relaxation shows up in that “purely relaxation” periodic and aperiodic liquid flows arise. When the conductivity of the liquid declines, the instability growth rates for unstable waves increase and their spectrum extends toward short waves. A charge present on the surface of the jet enhances its instability. An increase in the charge surface diffusion coefficient variously influences the capillary and relaxation branches of the solution: the damping ratio increases in the former case and decreases in the latter. As the diffusion coefficient rises, relaxation flows may become unstable.     

Electrocapillary instability of a conducting liquid cylinder

The electrocapillary instability of a conducting liquid cylinder is analyzed. Exact solutions to the linearized Navier-Stokes equations are examined. Growth rates are found for several unstable modes, including both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric ones. Special attention is given to the electric field effects on the temporal growth and length scales of unstable modes. It is shown that, whereas capillary instability is axisymmetric in the absence of electric field, nonaxisymmetric surface modes also become unstable in a nonzero electric field, growing with time. With increasing electric field strength, azimuthal modes are “switched on” (begin to grow with time) sequentially and the highest temporal growth rate monotonically increases.     

Decay and modulation instabilities of beat waves in a plasma

Summary A large-amplitude beat wave excited at the beat frequency of two copropagating laser beams is extremely unstable and suffers strong three- and fourwave parametric instabilities with large growth rates. The relativistic effects are seen to be negligible on both the decay and modulation instabilities. However, the growth rates of these instabilities are sensitive functions of the plasma parameters. The authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Electrostatic Instabilities at High Frequency in a Plasma Shock Front

New electrostatic instabilities in the plasma shock front are reported. These instabilities are driven by the electro- static field which is caused by charge separation and the parameter gradients in a plasma shock front. The linear analysis to the high frequency branch of electrostatic instabilities has been carried out and the dispersion relations are obtained numerically. There are unstable disturbing waves in both the parallel and perpendicular directions of shock propagation. The real frequencies of both unstable waves are similar to the electron electrostatic wave, and the unstable growth rate in the parallel direction is much greater than the one in the perpendicular direction. The dependence of growth rates on the electric field and parameter gradients is also presented.     

Parametric instabilities of langmuir waves in a non-uniform magnetoplasma

It is shown that an obliquely propagating electron plasma wave in a non-uniform magnetoplasma is unstable with respect to drift wave perturbations. The growth rates for the three-wave decay interaction as well as modulational instabilities are obtained.     

RPA instabilities in finite nuclei at low density

Early development of the instabilities in a dilute nuclear source is investigated using a finite temperature quantal RPA approach for different systems. The growth rates of the unstable collective modes are determined by solving a dispersion relation, which is obtained by parametrizing the transition density in terms of its multipole moments. Under typical conditions of a dilute finite system at moderate temperatures the dispersion relation exhibits an ultraviolet cut-off. As a result, only a finite number of multipole modes becomes unstable, and the number of the unstable collective modes increases with the size of the source. Calculations indicate that for an expanding source, unstable modes show a transition from surface to volume character.     

Nonlinear modulation of randomly distributed upper-hybrid modes in plasmas

A new type of modulations of an ensemble of random waves near the upper-hybrid resonance frequency is investigated. For the linearly unstable cases, the growth rates are obtained and exact nonlinear stationary distributions are presented.     

On the time evolution of the liquid meniscus at the end of a capillary placed in an external electric field

Using a linearized set of equations of electrodynamics, the stability of the uniformly charged meniscus of a viscous conducting incompressible liquid at the end of a capillary is investigated and analytical expressions are derived for the electric field outside the meniscus, velocity fields in the liquid flow and meniscus, and generatrix of the meniscus shape. It is found that, if an external electric field near the meniscus exceeds that at which the free liquid surface becomes unstable against the surface charge, a finite number of longest waves become unstable with their instability growth rates nonmonotonically depending on the wavenumber. Analysis of the time evolution of the meniscus shape under various initial conditions shows that cylindrical waves with the highest instability growth rates play a decisive role in this process, while the influence of the initial deformation amplitude is insignificant.     

On the modulation of upper-hybrid turbulence by low-frequency waves

It is shown that an ensemble of randomly phased noninteracting upper-hybrid waves can become unstable wiht respect to low-frequency electrostatic ion-cyclotron and lower-hybrid perturbations. The growth rates of the instabilities are obtained.     

Rayleigh-Taylor instability of multi-fluid layers in cylindrical geometry

Rayleigh-Taylor instability of three fluid layers with two interfaces in cylindrical geometry is investigated analytically.The growth rates and the amplitudes of perturbation on the two interfaces are obtained. The feedback factor from outer to inner interface is larger than that from inner to outer interface under the same conditions. The growth rate on the initially unstable interface is larger than the corresponding result in planar geometry for low mode perturbation. The two interfaces are decoupled for a larger mode number perturbation. The dependencies of the amplitudes of perturbation on different initial conditions are analyzed. The negative feedback effect from initially stable interface to another unstable interface is observed. In the limit of infinity inner radius and finite shell thickness, the results in planar geometry are recovered.     

Instability of incoherent photons

A kinetic theory for the modulational instability of incoherent photons with a broad spectrum is presented. Explicit results for the growth rates are obtained in several limiting cases.     

可压剪切层线性稳定性特征直接数值模拟

基于伪随机数生成技术促白噪声扰动,以高精度迎风／对称紧致混合差分算法求解二维／三维非定常可压Navier－Stokes方程,揭示了可压自由剪切层初始剪切过程中扰动的线性演化特征,以及该过程对扰动波数和方向的内在选择性,验证了所用算法的有效性,表明线性理论同数值模拟相结合是可压剪切层研究的合理途径之一。     

Effect of scalar nonlinearity on zonal flow generation by Rossby waves

Effects of scalar nonlinearity on the generation of zonal flow by Rossby waves in shallow rotating fluid are considered. Zonal flows are generated via the action of Reynolds stress due to vector nonlinearity together with the effects of scalar nonlinearity. It is shown that the scalar nonlinearity reduces the amplitude threshold of the zonal flow instability. In addition, it increases the range of wave vectors of unstable modes subjected to the instability. The growth rate of the instability as a function of the spectrum of primary waves is calculated. The spectrum is assumed to be arbitrary with emphasizing the case of two monochromatic waves.     

Two-dimensional stability of large amplitude langmuir waves and solitons

The two-dimensional stability of nonlinear wave and soliton solutions of the exponentially nonlinear Schrödinger equation is examined. All stationary entities are unstable to two-dimensional perturbations. It is found that the saturable nonlinearity decreases growth rates in comparison with the small amplitude limit.     

Nonlinear periodic waves on the charged surface of a deep low-viscosity conducting liquid

An analytical expression for the profile of a finite-amplitude wave on the free charged surface of a deep low-viscosity conducting liquid is derived in an approximation quadratic in wave amplitude-to-wavelength ratio. It is shown that viscosity causes the wave amplitude to decay with time and makes the wave profile asymmetric at surface charge densities subcritical in terms of Tonks-Frenkel instability. At supercritical values of the surface charge density, taking account of viscosity decreases the growth rate of emissive protrusions on the unstable free surface, slightly broadens them for short waves, and narrows for long ones. Analytical expressions for the wave frequencies, damping rates, and instability growth rates with regard to viscosity are found.     

Growth rates of the buoyancy-driven instability of an autocatalytic reaction front in a narrow cell

Experimental studies were performed on the buoyancy-driven instability of an autocatalytic reaction front in a quasi-2D cell. The unstable density stratification at an ascending front leads to convection that results in a fingerlike front deformation. The growth rates of the spatial modes of the instability are determined at the initial stage. A stabilization is found at higher wave numbers, while the system is unstable against low wave number perturbations. Whereas comparison with a reported model governed by Hele-Shaw flow fails, a two-dimensional Navier-Stokes model yields more satisfactory results. Still, present deviations suggest the presence of an additional mechanism that suppresses the growth.