Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
Several types of two-dimensional solutions for the equations of magnetohydrodynamics are described. For all these solutions the magnetic field contains at least one hyperbolic neutral point. Two new magnetostatic equilibria are introduced for the ideally conducting case. The magnetic field associated with one of these is used to construct an exact time-dependent solution of the MilD equations where the fluid is necessarily at rest. In the case where the field lines are hyperbolae, it is demonstrated that retention of the energy equation (ordinarily decoupled for incompressible flows) implies that the flow beginning at rest, remains at trest