Rayleigh–Taylor Instability and Its Growth Rate in Complex Plasmas

Abstract

Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability is studied in this article in an inhomogeneous complex plasma. It has been observed that RT instability may occur when the mass density of the dust particles exhibits inhomogeneity in certain regions. The growth rate of the RT instability increases as the perturbed wavelength decreases and also as the gravitational acceleration increases. Moreover, it is also found that the charged characteristics of dust fluids play an important role in suppressing the RT instability in complex plasmas. Our results have potential applications in complex plasmas.