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Updated: Feb 28, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Instabilities in bilayer complex plasmas: Wake-induced mode coupling
1Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
Abstract:
Stability principles for bilayer complex plasmas are studied. To mimic bilayer crystals and identify the main melting mechanism of such structures, a simple binary-chain model is employed. This approach provides adequate representation of the collective effects and accurate description of the interaction nonreciprocity, associated with the wake-mediated interparticle forces. It is shown that the wake-induced coupling of the wave modes sustained in different crystalline layers can trigger the dynamical instability. Furthermore, the mode coupling is demonstrated to be a universal instability mechanism, operating also in bilayer fluids. General stability criteria for the crystalline and fluid bilayers are derived.
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