Effect of Inhomogeneous Flow on Rayleigh Taylor Instability

The effect of inhomogeneous flow on the stability of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) mode is investigated in the presence of realistic flow profile which includes both flow shear (first order radial derivative) and flow curvature (second order radial derivative). It is found that contrary to the usual believe the flow curvature has robust effect on the stability of the RT mode - depending on the sign the flow curvature could be stabilizing or destabilizing. The consequence of this novel finding in various interdisciplinary areas will be discussed.