Experimental Observation and Characterization of the Magnetorotational Instability

Sisan, Daniel R.; Mujica, Nicolás; Tillotson, W. A.; Huang, Yi-Min; Dorland, W.; Hassam, A. B.; Antonsen, Thomas M.; Lathrop, Daniel P.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.114502

Cited by 227 publications

(216 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Unfortunately, detection of the MRI has so far proven elusive. Sisan et al (2004) claimed to detect the MRI in a spherical Couette flow, but most likely detected unrelated MHD instabilities instead (Hollerbach 2009;Gissinger et al 2011). Most relevant to our work is the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) MRI Experiment, a liquid gallium TC flow with an axial magnetic field (Ji et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Weakly Nonlinear Magnetorotational Instability in a Global, Cylindrical Taylor–Couette Flow

Clark

Oishi

2017

ApJ

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We conduct a global, weakly nonlinear analysis of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in a Taylor-Couette flow. This is a multiscale perturbative treatment of the nonideal, axisymmetric MRI near threshold, subject to realistic radial boundary conditions and cylindrical geometry. We analyze both the standard MRI, initialized by a constant vertical background magnetic field, and the helical MRI, with an azimuthal background field component. This is the first weakly nonlinear analysis of the MRI in a global Taylor-Couette geometry, as well as the first weakly nonlinear analysis of the helical MRI. We find that the evolution of the amplitude of the standard MRI is described by a real Ginzburg-Landau equation (GLE), while the amplitude of the helical MRI takes the form of a complex GLE. This suggests that the saturated state of the helical MRI may itself be unstable on long spatial and temporal scales.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Weakly Nonlinear Magnetorotational Instability in a Global, Cylindrical Taylor–Couette Flow

Clark

Oishi

2017

ApJ

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“…Besides this relevance to the outer part of accretion disks, to protoplanetary disks (Turner & Sano 2008), and possibly even to planetary cores (Petitdemange et al 2008), the limit of low and vanishing Pm has acquired some additional interest in connection with the recent liquid metal experiments devoted to the study of MRI (Sisan et al 2004;Stefani et al 2006;Nornberg et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Unifying Picture of Helical and Azimuthal Magnetorotational Instability, and the Universal Significance of the Liu Limit

Kirillov

Stefani

Fukumoto

2012

ApJ

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The magnetorotational instability (MRI) plays a key role for cosmic structure formation by triggering turbulence in the rotating flows of accretion disks that would be otherwise hydrodynamically stable. In the limit of small magnetic Prandtl number, the helical and the azimuthal versions of MRI are known to be governed by a quite different scaling behavior than the standard MRI with a vertical applied magnetic field. Using the short-wavelength approximation for an incompressible, resistive, and viscous rotating fluid, we present a unified description of helical and azimuthal MRI, and we identify the universal character of the Liu limit 2(1 − √ 2) ≈ −0.8284 for the critical Rossby number. From this universal behavior we are also led to the prediction that the instability will be governed by a mode with an azimuthal wavenumber that is proportional to the ratio of axial to azimuthal applied magnetic field, when this ratio becomes large and the Rossby number is close to the Liu limit.

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“…The first one is based on an experimental setup using spherical Couette flow (Sisan et al, 2004). Before an axial magnetic field is imposed, the H. Ji flow is hydrodynamically unstable since outer sphere is stationary.…”

Section: Magnetohydrodynamic (Mhd) Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current status and future prospects for laboratory study of angular momentum transport relevant to astrophysical disks

Ji¹

2010

Proc. IAU

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Abstract.A concise review of the past and ongoing laboratory experiments on rotating flows and the associated angular momentum transport relevant to astrophysical disks is given in three categories: hydrodynamic, magnetohydrodynamic, gas and plasma experiments. Future prospects for these experiments, especially for those directly relevant to the magnetorotational instability (MRI), are discussed with an emphasis on a newly proposed swirling gas and plasma experiment.

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Experimental Observation and Characterization of the Magnetorotational Instability

Cited by 227 publications

References 26 publications

The Weakly Nonlinear Magnetorotational Instability in a Global, Cylindrical Taylor–Couette Flow

The Weakly Nonlinear Magnetorotational Instability in a Global, Cylindrical Taylor–Couette Flow

A Unifying Picture of Helical and Azimuthal Magnetorotational Instability, and the Universal Significance of the Liu Limit

Current status and future prospects for laboratory study of angular momentum transport relevant to astrophysical disks

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