Instability of Compressible Drops and Jets

We revisit the classic problem of the stability of drops and jets held by surface tension, while regarding the compressibility of bulk fluids and spatial dimensions as free parameters. By mode analysis, it is shown that there exists a critical compressibility above which the drops (and disks) become unstable for a spherical perturbation. For a given value of compressibility (and those of the surface tension and density at the equilibrium), this instability criterion provides a minimal radius below which the drop cannot be a stable equilibrium. According to the existence of the above unstable mode of drop, which corresponds to a homogeneous perturbation of cylindrical jet, the dispersion relation of Rayleigh-Plateau instability for cylinders drastically changes. In particular, we identify another critical compressibility above which the homogeneous unstable mode is predominant. The analysis is done for non-relativistic and relativistic perfect fluids, of which self-gravity is ignored.

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