Instability of a vortex ring due to toroidal normal fluid flow in superfluid 4He

Vortex rings self-propelling in superfluid 4He are shown to be driven unstable by a toroidal normal fluid flow. This instability has qualitative similarities with the Donnelly-Glaberson instability of Kelvin waves on a vortex filament driven by the normal fluid flow along the vortex filament. The growth rate of the present instability is found to be independent of the radius of the vortex ring.