The magnetorotational instability prefers three dimensions

DOI10.1098/RSPA.2019.0622MaRDI QIDQ5160860zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Jeffrey S. Oishi, G. M. Vasil, Morgan Baxter, Andrew Swan, Keaton J. Burns, Daniel Lecoanet, Benjamin P. Brown

Publication date 29 October 2021

Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.00972, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7016557

zbMATH Keywords

astrophysicsfluid mechanicsmagnetohydrodynamicsplasma physicsstabilitystars

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic problems in astronomy and astrophysics (85A30)

Abstract: The magnetorotational instability (MRI) occurs when a weak magnetic field destabilises a rotating, electrically conducting fluid with inwardly increasing angular velocity. The MRI is essential to astrophysical disk theory where the shear is typically Keplerian. Internal shear layers in stars may also be MRI unstable, and they take a wide range of profiles, including near-critical. We show that the fastest growing modes of an ideal magnetofluid are three-dimensional provided the shear rate, $S$, is near the two-dimensional onset value, $S_c$. For a Keplerian shear, three-dimensional modes are unstable above $Sapprox0.10S_c$, and dominate the two-dimensional modes until $Sapprox2.05S_c$. These three-dimensional modes dominate for shear profiles relevant to stars and at magnetic Prandtl numbers relevant to liquid-metal laboratory experiments. Significant numbers of rapidly growing three-dimensional modes remain well past $2.05S_c$. These finding are significant in three ways. First, weakly nonlinear theory suggests that the MRI saturates by pushing the shear rate to its critical value. This can happen for systems, like stars and laboratory experiments, that can rearrange their angular velocity profiles. Second, the non-normal character and large transient growth of MRI modes should be important whenever three-dimensionality exists. Finally, three-dimensional growth suggests direct dynamo action driven from the linear instability.

Recommendations

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Cites work

• Magnetorotational instability of dissipative Couette flow
• Magnetorotational instability: recent developments
• On the magnetorotational instability and elastic buckling

Cited in

(13)

• Magnetorotational instability in viscous dusty plasmas with three-component model
• Low magnetic-Prandtl number flow configurations for cold astrophysical disk models: speculation and analysis
• Nonaxisymmetric modes of MRI in dissipative Keplerian disks
• On the connection between the magneto-elliptic and magneto-rotational instabilities
• Saturation of the magnetorotational instability at large Elsasser number
• Secondary tearingmode in the nonlinear evolution of magnetorotational instability
• Magnetorotational instability in proto-neutron stars
• Magnetorotational instability: recent developments
• Standard and helical magnetorotational instability
• Magneto-rotational overstability in accretion disks
• Two-dimensional non-linear simulations of the magnetostrophic magnetorotational instability
• MHD unstable modes in the 3D evolution of 2D MHD structures and the diminished role of coalescence instabilities
• Taylor-Couette flow for astrophysical purposes

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