Observation of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in cylindrical geometry

We report on observations of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in a Taylor-Couette experiment using a liquid metal over a wide range of Reynolds numbers, Re～10(3)-10(6). The free Shercliff layer is formed by imposing a sufficiently strong axial magnetic field across a pair of differentially rotating axial end cap rings. This layer is destabilized by a hydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz-type instability, characterized by velocity fluctuations in the r-θ plane. The instability appears with an Elsasser number above unity, and saturates with an azimuthal mode number m which increases with the Elsasser number. Measurements of the structure agree well with 2D global linear mode analyses and 3D global nonlinear simulations. These observations have implications for a range of rotating MHD systems in which similar shear layers may be produced.     

Experimental evidence for magnetorotational instability in a Taylor-Couette flow under the influence of a helical magnetic field

A recent Letter [R. Hollerbach and G. Rüdiger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 124501 (2005)] has shown that the threshold for the onset of the magnetorotational instability in a Taylor-Couette flow is dramatically reduced if both axial and azimuthal magnetic fields are imposed. In agreement with this prediction, we present results of a Taylor-Couette experiment with the liquid metal alloy GaInSn, showing evidence for the existence of the magnetorotational instability at Reynolds numbers of order 1000 and Hartmann numbers of order 10.     

Magnetic Vortex Tubes in Astrophysics

The viscous forces on electrons and ions in a differentially rotating plasma drive an azimuthal current density j?, with axial magnetic field Bz which is shown to be proportional to plasma vorticity. Field strengths in agreement with those observed for both stars and galaxies are obtained, assuming that reactive forces prevent radial drifts of electrons or ions. Hierarchical vorticity is required in order to reconcile the small-scale length required for field changes with the large-scale length of observed fields. A vortex tube with magnetic field (magnetic vortex tube-MVT) becomes the basic entity for the origin of magnetic fields. Twisting of field lines by differential rotation causes (1?,Bz,) ?(jz, B?,). When jzB?, > j?, Bz the MVT suffers magnetic pinch, and the axial current in the pinch flows through a cylindrical sheath with a radial electric field due to plasma polarization. An instability of drift velocity denudes a length R of the current channel of free charges, and the inductively maintained current then requires a displacement current in R and hence a growing axial electric field Ez, Ez is limited by transfer of the energy in B?, to Ez, and thereafter the energy oscillates between the fields. On the stellar scale, evidence for polar MVT's comes from young stars with bipolar outflows of gas and jets. It is argued that end-on viewing of polar MVT's accounts for the kilogauss fields of Ap stars and the 1-100-MG fields of magnetic white dwarfs.     

The Rippled-Field Magnetron (Cross-Field Free Electron Laser)

Millimeter-wave emission from the rippled-field magnetron (cross-field free electron laser (FEL)) is investigated experimentally and theoretically. In this device, electrons move in quasi-circular orbits under the combined action of a radial electric field, a uniform axial magnetic field, and a radial azimuthally periodic wiggler magnetic field. In excess of 300 kW of RF power is observed in two narrow spectral lines whose frequency can be tuned continuously from ~25 to ~50 GHz by variation of the axial magnetic field. The observations are interpreted as a FEL type of instability, associated with a resonance in the particle motion of a layer of electrons embedded in the dense spacecharge cloud. The resonance is shown to occur when 2kw?0 ? (?>0/?0) ?1 -(?p/?0)2, where kw is the wiggler wavenumber, ?0 is the azimuthal electron velocity, ?0 is the relativistic cyclotron frequency in the axial magnetic field, wp is the relativistic plasma frequency, and ?0 = [1 - (?0/c)2]-1/2 of the resonant electron layer.     

A Nonlinear Azimuthal Instability of Hydromgantic Rigid-Rotating Column

This work examines a new approach to studying the nonlinear azimuthal instability analysis. The system consists of two rotating fluids through porous media in the influence of a uniform azimuthal magnetic field. For gullibility, the problem is assumed in a planar configuration. The boundary-value problem reveals a differential equation of nonlinearity nature which controls the surface deflection of the interface. The investigation of this equation is based mainly on the homotopy perturbation technique. The linear and nonlinear stability criteria are conducted. Besides, the profile of the surface deflection is theoretically achievable. The numerical calculations are done to display the effect of the several physical parameters on the stability profile. It is found that the ratio of the densities between the two fluid columns plays an interesting role in the stability picture in linear as well as the nonlinear approaches. For instance; a dual role of the density ratio occurs when the density of the inner column is greater than that of the outer one. Furthermore, the azimuthal wavenumber, like the axial wavenumber, plays a stabilizing influence.     

Quasistatic magnetic fields generated by a nonrelativistic intense laser pulse in uniform underdense plasma

Quasistatic magnetic fields generated by nonrelativistic intense linearly polarized (LP) and circularly polarized (CP) laser pulses in an initially uniform underdense plasma in the collision-dominated limit are investigated analytically. Using a selfconsistent analytical model, we perform a detailed derivation of quasistatic magnetic fields in the laser pulse envelope in the collision-dominated limit to obtain exact analytical expressions for magnetic fields and discuss the dependence of magnetic fields on laser and plasma parameters. Equations for quasistatic magnetic fields including both axial component B_z and the azimuthal one B_θ are derived simultaneously from such a selfconsistent model. The dependence of quasistatic magnetic field on incident laser intensity, transverse focused radius of laser pulse, electron density and electron temperature is discussed.     

Magnetic stabilization,transition and energy analysis in the Marangoni driven Full-Zone at low Prandtl numbers

The linear stability of the Marangoni-driven Full-Zone is investigated for low Prandtl number fluids. A constant and uniform magnetic field is applied along the axial axis of the liquid bridge to stabilize the axisymmetric base state. Dramatic contraction of the flow circulation in both radial and azimuthal directions is observed with moderate magnetic fields. The numerical solution utilizes a vorticity transport formulation and high resolution spectral collocation scheme with Chebyshev polynomial basis functions. Critical transitions to three-dimensional, stationary flows are observed up to Ha = 300 for Pr = 0.02 and Ha = 500 for Pr = 0.001. A hydrodynamically driven instability is suggested by the perturbation flows and confirmed through an energy analysis.     

Propagation of azimuthal waves in magnetoactive waveguides filled with a current-carrying plasma

It is shown that a cylindrical metallic waveguide fully filled with a magnetoactive plasma can propagate coupled ordinarily polarized bulk and extraordinarily polarized surface waves along its azimuthal direction. Interaction between these waves is studied in the case when an external magnetic field has axial and azimuthal components. For the case of a regular profile, a practically convenient analytical expression for a correction to the eigenfrequency of the waves that is due to the external azimuthal magnetic field is derived.     

Simulation studies of the magnetic field generation in cosmological plasmas

We present computer simulation studies of the magnetic field generation by colliding electron clouds in cosmic plasmas. Simulation results exhibit purely growing magnetic fields, generation of electrostatic waves and subsequent electron energization in different regimes. The linear growth and saturated magnetic fields in our simulations are in good agreement with recent theoretical predictions of the Weibel instability induced magnetic fields in cosmological plasmas.     

Pinch instability of a cylindrical couette flow in a nonuniform axial magnetic field

The paper addresses the linear stability to axisymmetric perturbations of an incompressible nonideal fluid between two rotating coaxial infinitely long cylinders in a nonuniform axial magnetic field. For conducting cylinders, the results for uniform and nonuniform magnetic fields are qualitatively identical. This is also observed for nonconducting cylinders in a magnetic field with a constant direction. Instability appears for nonconducting cylinders in a magnetic field with a varying direction, whose magnitude exceeds a certain critical value. This new instability also exists in the absence of rotation and, hence, is independent of its parameters. In addition, the critical magnetic field is independent of the magnetic Prandtl number, which facilitates experimental observation of the new instability.     

Confined ferrofluid droplet in crossed magnetic fields

When a ferrofluid drop is trapped in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell and subjected to a vertical magnetic field, a fingering instability results in the droplet evolving into a complex branched structure. This fingering instability depends on the magnetic field ramp rate but also depends critically on the initial state of the droplet. Small perturbations in the initial droplet can have a large influence on the resulting final pattern. By simultaneously applying a stabilizing (horizontal) azimuthal magnetic field, we gain more control over the mode selection mechanism. We perform a linear stability analysis that shows that any single mode can be selected by appropriately adjusting the strengths of the applied fields. This offers a unique and accurate mode selection mechanism for this confined magnetic fluid system. We present the results of numerical simulations that demonstrate that this mode selection mechanism is quite robust and “overpowers” any initial perturbations on the droplet. This provides a predictable way to obtain patterns with any desired number of fingers.     

Long-range ferromagnetic dipolar ordering of high-spin molecular clusters

We report the first example of a transition to long-range magnetic order in a purely dipolarly interacting molecular magnet. For the magnetic cluster compound Mn6O4Br4(Et2dbm)6, the anisotropy experienced by the total spin S = 12 of each cluster is so small that spin-lattice relaxation remains fast down to the lowest temperatures, thus enabling dipolar order to occur within experimental times at T(c) = 0.16 K. In high magnetic fields, the relaxation rate becomes drastically reduced and the interplay between nuclear- and electron-spin lattice relaxation is revealed.     

Influence of magnetic fields on taylor vortex formation in magnetic fluids

The flow of a magnetic fluid placed inside a small gap between concentric rotating cylinders is investigated for axial, radial and azimuthal magnetic fields. An equation of motion is derived phenomenologically to describe the hydrodynamics of magnetic fluids. Studied are the changes in the critical Taylor numberT _c and wave numberT _c which characterize the instability of primary circular Couette flow towards Taylor vortices. It is found that all above magnetic fields have a stabilizing effect on circular Couette flow and thatT _c increases or decreases, depending on the direction of the magnetic field. Besides this, the influence of the magnetic fields on the correlation length ₀, the wave number of maximal growthk _m and the linear growth rate amplitude ₀ is determined.     

Schwinger mechanism enhanced by the Nielsen–Olesen instability

We discuss gluon production by the Schwinger mechanism in collinear color-electric and magnetic fields which may be realized in pre-equilibrium stages of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Fluctuations of non-Abelian gauge fields around a purely color-magnetic field contain exponentially growing unstable modes in a longitudinally soft momentum region, which is known as the Nielsen–Olesen instability. With a color-electric field imposed parallelly to the color-magnetic field, we can formulate this instability as the Schwinger mechanism. This is because soft unstable modes are accelerated by the electric fields to escape from the instability condition. Effects of instability remain in the transverse spectrum of particle modes, leading to an anomalously intense Schwinger particle production.     

Dynamos at extreme magnetic Prandtl numbers: insights from shell models

We present a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shell model suitable for computation of various energy fluxes of MHD turbulence for very small and very large magnetic Prandtl numbers Pm; such computations are inaccessible to direct numerical simulations. For small Pm, we observe that both kinetic and magnetic energy spectra scale as k^?5/3 in the inertial range, but the dissipative magnetic energy scales as k^?11/3exp?(? k/k_η). Here the kinetic energy at large length scale feeds the large-scale magnetic field that cascades to small-scale magnetic field, which gets dissipated by Joule heating. The large-Pm dynamo has a similar behaviour except that the dissipative kinetic energy scales as k^?13/3. For this case, the large-scale velocity field transfers energy to the large-scale magnetic field, which gets transferred to small-scale velocity and magnetic fields; the energy of the small-scale magnetic field also gets transferred to the small-scale velocity field, and the energy thus accumulated is dissipated by the viscous force.     

DC column plasma kinetics in a longitudinal magnetic field

The cylindrical column plasma of a neon dc glow discharge under the influence of a weak longitudinal magnetic field is studied. An extended, fully self-consistent model of the column plasma has been used to determine the kinetic quantities of electrons, ions and excited atoms, the radial space charge field, and the axial electric field for given discharge conditions. The model includes a nonlocal kinetic treatment of the electrons by solving their spatially inhomogeneous kinetic equation, taking into account the radial space charge field and the axial magnetic field. The treatment is based on the two-term expansion of the velocity distribution and comprises the determination of its isotropic and anisotropic components in the axial, radial, and azimuthal direction. A transition from a distinctly nonlocal kinetic behavior of the electrons in the magnetic-field-free case to an almost local kinetic behavior has been found by increasing the magnetic field. The establishment of the electron cyclotron motion around the column axis increasingly restricts the radial electron energy transport and reduces the radial ambipolar current. The complex interaction of these transport phenomena with the alterations in the charge carrier production leads finally to a specific variation of the electric field components. The axial field increases by applying weak magnetic fields, however, decreases with increasingly higher magnetic fields. At higher magnetic fields, the radial space-charge field is considerably reduced     

MHD swirling flow and heat transfer in Maxwell fluid driven by two coaxially rotating disks with variable thermal conductivity

We develop a mathematical modeling for an electrically conducting non-Newtonian Maxwell fluid flow occurring between two coaxially parallel stretchable rotating disks at constant distant apart. The pressure and heat transfer analysis is carried out subject to the effects of axial magnetic field and temperature dependent thermal conductivity. The stretching and rotating rates of both disks are assumed different from each other. The two diverse phenomena, such as, when both disks are rotating with different angular velocities in the same as well as in the opposite directions are discussed. The similarity procedure adopted by von Kármán is utilized to reduce the governing momentum and energy equations into nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The solution of the governing problem is obtained numerically using bvp4c scheme in Matlab. The effects of active parameters including stretching rates, Deborah number, magnetic number, Prandtl number, thermal conductivity parameter and Reynolds number are examined for same as well as opposite rotation direction for radial, azimuthal, and axial flows, pressure and temperature fields. The classical flow pattern happening between the disks is significantly altered by the stretching action which is a main physical significances of this study. The azimuthal flow is observed higher for the same direction of disks rotation as compared to opposite disks rotation. The pressure field drops near the lower disk with increasing values of Reynolds number. The role of thermal conductivity parameter is quite useful to enhance the fluid temperature.     

Magnetic-field induced spin-Peierls instability in strongly frustrated quantum spin lattices

For a class of frustrated antiferromagnetic spin lattices (in particular, the square-kagomé and kagomé lattices) we discuss the impact of recently discovered exact eigenstates on the stability of the lattice against distortions. These eigenstates consist of independent localized magnons embedded in a ferromagnetic environment and become ground states in high magnetic fields. For appropriate lattice distortions fitting to the structure of the localized magnons the lowering of magnetic energy can be calculated exactly and is proportional to the displacement of atoms leading to a spin-Peierls lattice instability. Since these localized states are present only for high magnetic fields, this instability might be driven by magnetic-field. The hysteresis of the spin-Peierls transition is also discussed.     

Quantum magnetic collapse

We study the thermodynamics of degenerate electron and charged vector boson gases in very intense magnetic fields. In degenerate conditions of the electron gas, the pressure transverse to the magnetic field B may vanish, leading to a transverse collapse. For W bosons an instability arises because the magnetization diverges at the critical field B(c) = M(2)(W)/e. If the magnetic field is self-consistently maintained, the maximum value it can take is of the order of 2B(c)/3, but in any case the system becomes unstable and collapses.     

Rayleigh-Taylor instability in variable density swirling flows

Using linear instability theory and nonlinear dynamics, the Rayleigh-Taylor instability of variable density swirling flows is studied. It is found that the flow topology could be predicted, when the instability sets in, using a function χ dependent on density and axial and azimuthal velocities. It is shown that even when the inner axial-flow is heavier than the outer one (a favorable case for the development of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability thanks to the centrifugal force) the instability is not necessarily Rayleigh-Taylor-dominated. It is also shown that when the Rayleigh-Taylor instability develops, it is helical.