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Intuitive calculation of the relativistic Rayleigh-Taylor instability linear growth rate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2011

Antoine Bret
Antoine Bret*
Affiliation:
ETSI Industriales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Antoine Bret, Universidad Castilla La Mancha, ETSI Industriales, Avda Camillo Jose Cela, s/n 13 071 Ciudad Real, Spain. E-mail: antoineclaude.breat@uclm.es
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Abstract

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability is a key process in many fields of Physics ranging from astrophysics to inertial confinement fusion. It is usually analyzed deriving the linearized fluid equations, but the physics behind the instability is not always clear. Recent works on this instability allow for an very intuitive understanding of the phenomenon and for a straightforward calculation of the linear growth rate. In this Letter, it is shown that the same reasoning allows for a direct derivation of the relativistic expression of the linear growth rate for an incompressible fluid.

Keywords

Inertial confinement fusionLinearized fluid equationsRayleigh-Taylor instability
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 255 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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