Quantum effects on Rayleigh-Taylor instability in magnetized plasma

The effects of the quantum mechanism and magnetic field on Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in an ideal incompressible plasma are investigated. The explicit expression of the linear growth rate is obtained in the presence of fixed boundary conditions. It is shown that the magnetic field has a stabilizing effect on RT instability similar to the behavior in classical plasmas and RT instability is affected significantly by quantum effects. Quantum effects are also shown to suppress RT instability with the appropriate physical quantities. Some astrophysical parameters are discussed as an example to investigate the new effects. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.