The Effects of Collisions with Neutral Particles on the Instability of Two Superposed Composite Plasmas Streaming Through Porous Medium

Z. Naturforsch. 54 a, 411-416 (1999); received April 19, 1999 The effects of collisions with neutral atoms on the hydromagnetic stability of the plane interface separating two streaming superposed composite plasmas of uniform densities in a porous medium are investigated. In the absence of fluid velocities, it is found, for a potentially stable configuration, that the system remains stable, while for a potentially unstable configuraion, the unstable system becomes stable under a certain condition of the wavenumber depending on the values of the fluid densities, Alfven velocities, and the orientation of the magnetic field. The porosity of the porous medium does not have any significant effect on the stability criterion. In the presence of fluid velocities, it is found that, the instability criterion is independent of the permeability of the medium and the collision effects with neutral particles. The criterion determing the stability does not depend on the permeability of the medium but depends on the density of neutral particles. The porosity of the medium is found to have a significant effect on both the stability and instability criteria in this case. The role of the permeability of the medium, the collisional frequency, and the porosity of the porous medium on the growth rate of the unstable mode is examined analitically. Routh's test of stability is applied to confirm the above results. PACS: 47.20.-k; 47.55.Mh; 47.65.+a; 52.30.-q; 52.35.-g.