The Role of the Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Resolving the Solar Prominence/Filament Paradox

Prominences and filaments are manifestations of magnetised, levitated plasma within the solar coronal atmosphere. Expanding on our previous 2.5D work presented in Jenkins & Keppens (2021), we will present a state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamic simulation that yields the first fully 3D model to successfully unite the extreme-ultraviolet and Hydrogen-α prominence views that contain radial striations with the equivalent on-disk filaments comprised of finite width threads. Owed to the unprecedented resolution with which this simulation is carried out, we complete a full observational synthesis and provide predictions of exactly what the instruments associated with the upcoming Solar Orbiter and DKIST will observe. We then begin with an analysis of all hydromagnetic sources of the vorticity evolution and find the internal plasma dynamics to be consistent with the nonlinear development of the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability. A further stability analysis that drops the strict, idealised mRTi initial conditions then enables us to tentatively characterise the preceding linear development as the general (quasi-) interchange gravitational instability. Our simulations and analyses show clearly how this universal interchange process operates, and how our results and conclusions finally unify the contradictory prominence/filament perspectives.