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Updated: Jul 21, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Experimental verification of the shear-modified ion-acoustic instability
C Teodorescu1, E W Reynolds, M E Koepke
1Physics Department, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6315, USA.
Abstract:
The predicted shear-induced shift of the wave phase velocity, the essence of the shear-modified ion-acoustic (SMIA) instability mechanism that reduces ion Landau damping for otherwise damped ion-acoustic waves [V. Gavrishchaka et al., 80, 728 (1998)], is verified with direct measurements in a strongly magnetized laboratory plasma. The SMIA growth rate is shown to increase with increasing shear, as predicted. SMIA wave propagation is shown to be possible at both small and large angles to the magnetic field, consistent with space observations of ion-acoustic-like waves.
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