Effect of tangential electric field on the evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability of a dielectric liquid film

The effect of surface ponderomotive forces produced by a uniform tangential electric field on the evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability of an isothermal film of a homogeneous incompressible dielectric liquid coating the lower surface of a horizontal insulating plate is studied in the long-wavelength approximation for the hydrodynamic equations and a simplified system of electrostatics equations. The lower boundary of the liquid is the interface with a stationary gas. It is shown in the framework of the linear theory that during the disruption of the continuous film, ponderomotive forces induce the formation of liquid billows extended along the applied field lines.