Stability of a volumetrically charged dielectric fluid jet accelerated in an electric field collinear to the jet

In the approximation linear in the amplitude of capillary waves (generally nonaxisymmetric) on the surface of a volumetrically charged dielectric fluid jet accelerated in an external electrostatic field collinear to the jet axis, a dispersion equation is derived and analyzed. It is shown that for certain values of physical parameters the effect of the external electric field stabilizing the capillary waves and the destabilizing effect of the capillary forces and the electrostatic forces exerted by the jet charge may compensate one another for both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric, with a high degree of asymmetry, waves. The instability of flexural waves cannot be suppressed completely and can be realized for sufficiently small wave numbers.