Coiling, entrainment, and hydrodynamic coupling of decelerated fluid jets

From algal suspensions to magma upwellings, one finds jets which exhibit complex symmetry-breaking instabilities as they are decelerated by their surroundings. We consider here a model system-a saline jet descending through a salinity gradient-which produces dynamics unlike those of standard momentum jets or plumes. The jet coils like a corkscrew within a conduit of viscously entrained fluid, whose upward recirculation braids the jet, and nearly confines transverse mixing to the narrow conduit. We show that the underlying jet structure and certain scaling relations follow from similarity solutions to the fluid equations and the physics of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities.