STABILITY OF AN ACCELERATED PLASMA SHELL IN THE PRESENCE OF MAGNETIC FIELD

Abstract

The stablity of an accelerated cylindrical shell of conducting fluid in the presence of a magnetic field having axial and azimuthal components against small wave number axi-symmetric disturbances is studied. In the exploding case, it is seen that the system is overstable and the frequency of unbounded oscillations deepen as on the thickness, the rate of explosion and the initial magnetic field of the system. Further. we find that the presence of a volume current distribution reduces the growth rate of instability. In the imploding case there occurs pure instabiliy, the growth rate of which increases logarithmically and does not depend on the initial magnetic field but depends on the thickness of the shell and on the rate of collapse.