The effect of anisotropic viscosity on the nonlinear MHD kink instability

DOI10.1016/J.CNSNS.2019.105131MaRDI QIDQ2207809zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors James Quinn, David MacTaggart, Radostin D. Simitev

Publication date 23 October 2020

Published in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.01076

zbMATH Keywords

3D Lagrangian-Eulerian remap codemagnetic reconnectionmagnetic relaxationsecondary instability

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Stability and instability of magnetohydrodynamic and electrohydrodynamic flows (76E25) Nonlinear effects in hydrodynamic stability (76E30) Basic methods in fluid mechanics (76M99) Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics (76W05) Galactic and stellar structure (85A15)

Abstract: The kink instability of magnetohydrodynamics is believed to be fundamental to many aspects of the dynamic activity of the solar atmosphere, such as the initiation of flares and the heating of the solar corona. In this work, we investigate the importance of viscosity on the kink instability. In particular, we focus on two forms of viscosity; isotropic viscosity (independent of the magnetic field) and anisotropic viscosity (with a preferred direction following the magnetic field). Through the detailed analysis of magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the kink instability with both types of viscosity, we show that the form of viscosity has a significant effect on the nonlinear dynamics of the instability. The different viscosities allow for different flow and current structures to develop, thus affecting the behaviour of magnetic relaxation, the formation of secondary instabilities and the Ohmic and viscous heating produced. Our results have important consequences for the interpretation of solar observations of the kink instability.

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Cites work

• A staggered grid, Lagrangian-Eulerian remap code for 3-D MHD simulations
• Braginskii magnetohydrodynamics for arbitrary magnetic topologies: coronal applications
• Heating the corona by nanoflares: simulations of energy release triggered by a kink instability
• Steady state reconnection at a single 3D magnetic null point

Cited in

(3)

• Effects of anisotropic roughness on MHD flow near a rotating disk
• Anisotropic viscous dissipation in three-dimensional magnetic merging solutions
• Role of electric fields in the MHD evolution of the kink instability

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