Viscosity gradient driven instability of `shear mode' in a strongly coupled plasma

The influence of viscosity gradient (due to shear flow) on low frequency collective modes in strongly coupled dusty plasma is analyzed. It is shown that for a well known viscoelastic plasma model, the velocity shear dependent viscosity leads to an instability of the shear mode. The inhomogeneous viscous force and velocity shear coupling supply the free energy for the instability. The combined strength of shear flow and viscosity gradient wins over any stabilizing force and makes the shear mode unstable. Implication of such a novel instability and its applications are briefly outlined.

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