The stability of tangential discontinuities

Intuition regarding the stability of MHD tangential discontinuities of solar wind has been borne out by a linear stability analysis of the MHD equations. In performing the calculation, the model used had no plasma flow and thus corresponded to the solar wind rest frame. The method calculated the change in total energy, plasma plus magnetic, due to the perturbation. This type of stability analysis is analogous to the test of the stability of an equilibrium point in a mechanical potential.