Late stages of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability - A numerical study in the context of accreting neutron stars
Abstract
The development of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the fully nonlinear regime is explored using a two-dimensional, compressible MHD code. The motivation for this work was provided by models of spherical accretion onto slowly rotating, magnetized neutron stars, where the diamagnetic external plasma may be regarded as the superposed 'heavy fluid' and the closed magnetosphere constitutes the underlying 'light fluid'. The numerical procedure, including an improved algorithm for tracing the boundary between the two fluids, is briefly described. Some important aspects of single-mode behavior are considered, including the 'cascade' to small scales via Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and the dependence of the penetration and mixing rates on the initial wavelength and density contrast. The evolution of noise-induced instabilities is examined, describing the nonlinear interactions between the mushroom structures. The effect of magnetic fields on the interchange process is discussed.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 1985
- DOI:
- 10.1086/163684
- Bibcode:
- 1985ApJ...299...85W
- Keywords:
-
- Computational Astrophysics;
- Neutron Stars;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Mass Accretion;
- Taylor Instability;
- Earth Magnetosphere;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Nonlinear Equations;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- Stellar Models;
- X Ray Sources;
- Astrophysics