Hydromagnetic stability of a self-gravitating plasma in the presence of Hall currents

Abstract The hydromagnetic stability of a self-gravitating incompressible plasma of varying density has been investigated to include the effects of Hall currents. A variable horizontal magnetic field, stratified vertically, is assumed to be present in the system. A variational principle is shown to characterize the problem. Proper solutions have been obtained, by making use of the existence of the variational principle, for a semi-infinite plasma in which the density has a one-dimensional (exponential) vertical stratification. It is found that the Hall currents have a destabilizing influence.