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Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
The Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a binary quantum fluid
Yanda Geng1, Junheng Tao1, Mingshu Zhao1
1Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland and National Institute of Standards and Technology, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
None:
Instabilities, where small fluctuations seed the formation of large-scale structures, govern dynamics in a variety of fluid systems. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI), present from tabletop to astronomical scales, is an iconic example characterized by mushroom-shaped incursions appearing when immiscible fluids are forced together. Despite its ubiquity, RTI experiments are challenging; here, we report the observation of the RTI in an immiscible binary superfluid consisting of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate. We force these components together to initiate the instability, and observe the growth of mushroom-like structures. The interface can also be stabilized, allowing us to spectroscopically measure the "ripplon" interface modes. Last, we use matter-wave interferometry to transform the superfluid velocity field at the interface into a vortex chain. These results-in agreement with our theory-demonstrate the close connection between the RTI in classical and quantum fluids.
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