Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 015001 (2008) [4 pages]Competing Mechanisms of Plasma Transport in Inhomogeneous Configurations with Velocity Shear: The Solar-Wind Interaction with Earth’s MagnetosphereReceived 10 May 2007; published 10 January 2008 Two-dimensional simulations of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in an inhomogeneous compressible plasma with a density gradient show that, in a transverse magnetic field configuration, the vortex pairing process and the Rayleigh-Taylor secondary instability compete during the nonlinear evolution of the vortices. Two different regimes exist depending on the value of the density jump across the velocity shear layer. These regimes have different physical signatures that can be crucial for the interpretation of satellite data of the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetospheric plasma. © 2008 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.015001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.015001
PACS:
94.30.−d, 52.35.Mw, 52.35.Py, 52.65.Kj
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