Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2006
The stability of a hard-core fluid jet is investigated under the assumption of small electrical conductivity of the fluid for parallel and antiparallel current systems. For axisymmetric deformations the parallel current has a destabilizing influence whereas the antiparallel current improves the stability of the configuration. However, for non-axisymmetric deformations characterized by m = 1, it is shown that the jet becomes unstable in general, both for parallel and antiparallel current systems. The presence of an external conductor has been shown to have a stabilizing influence on kink instability.