The effect of nonlinear characteristics of Rayleigh–Taylor instability with different magnetic fields

In the interplanetary space where the magnetic field topology is complex, the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) plays an important role in fluid mixing and energy transmission. The effect of nonlinear characteristics of the RTI with different magnetic fields has been studied using Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations. The theoretical results show that the growth rate of RTI is closely related to the magnetic field. The numerical results show that during the nonlinear growth phase of RTI, the presence of the magnetic field \(\varvec{{B}}\) has the inhibitory effect on the evolution of the mixing zone height \(h_m\). And the evolution of the spike width \(w_s\) is suppressed only with a magnetic field \(B_x\) which parallel to the interface of the magnetosphere.