Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T05:31:37.868Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prospects for observing the magnetorotational instability in the plasma Couette experiment

Part of: Experiments Fundamental Plasma Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2015

K. Flanagan ,
M. Clark ,
C. Collins ,
C. M. Cooper ,
I. V. Khalzov ,
J. Wallace  and
C. B. Forest Open the ORCID record for C. B. Forest [Opens in a new window]
K. Flanagan*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
M. Clark
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
C. Collins
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
C. M. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
I. V. Khalzov
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA National Research Centre ‘Kurchatov Institute’, Moscow, 123182, Russia
J. Wallace
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
C. B. Forest
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: ksflanagan@wisc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many astrophysical disks, such as protoplanetary disks, are in a regime where non-ideal, plasma-specific magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects can significantly influence the behaviour of the magnetorotational instability (MRI). The possibility of studying these effects in the plasma Couette experiment (PCX) is discussed. An incompressible, dissipative global stability analysis is developed to include plasma-specific two-fluid effects and neutral collisions, which are inherently absent in analyses of Taylor–Couette flows (TCFs) in liquid metal experiments. It is shown that with boundary driven flows, a ion-neutral collision drag body force significantly affects the azimuthal velocity profile, thus limiting the flows to regime where the MRI is not present. Electrically driven flow (EDF) is proposed as an alternative body force flow drive in which the MRI can destabilize at more easily achievable plasma parameters. Scenarios for reaching MRI relevant parameter space and necessary hardware upgrades are described.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , August 2015 , 345810401
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Balbus, S. and Hawley, J. 1991 A powerful local shear instability in weakly magnetized disks. Astrophys. J. 376, 214–222.Google Scholar
Balbus, S. and Hawley, J. 1998 Instability, turbulence, and enhanced transport in accretion disks. Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 1–53.Google Scholar
Balbus, S. A. and Terquem, C. 2001 Linear analysis of the hall effect in protostellar disks. Astrophys. J. 552, 235–247.Google Scholar
Chandrasekhar, S. 1960 The stability of non-dissipative Couette flow in hydromagnetics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 46, 253–257.Google Scholar
Collins, C., Clark, M., Cooper, C. M., Flanagan, K., Khalzov, I. V., Nornberg, M. D., Seidlitz, B., Wallace, J. and Forest, C. B. 2014 Taylor–Couette flow of unmagnetized plasma. Phys. Plasmas 21, 042117.Google Scholar
Collins, C., Katz, N., Wallace, J., Jara-Almonte, J., Reese, I., Zweibel, E. and Forest, C. B. 2012 Stirring unmagnetized plasma. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 115001.Google Scholar
Cooper, C. M. et al. 2014 The Madison plasma dynamo experiment: a facility for studying laboratory plasma astrophysics. Phys. Plasmas 21, 013505.Google Scholar
Ebrahimi, F., Lefebvre, B., Forest, C. B. and Bhattacharjee, A. 2011 Global Hall-MHD simulations of magnetorotational instability in a plasma Couette flow experiment. Phys. Plasmas 18, 062904.Google Scholar
Gissinger, C., Goodman, J. and Ji, H. 2012 The role of boundaries in the magnetorotational instability. Phys. Fluids 24, 074109.Google Scholar
Hershkowitz, N., Leung, K. N. and Romesser, T. 1975 Plasma leakage through a low-β line cusp. Phys. Rev. Lett. 35, 277.Google Scholar
Katz, N., Collins, C., Wallace, J., Clark, M., Weisberg, D., Jara-Almonte, J., Reese, I., Whal, C. and Forest, C. B. 2012 Magnetic bucket for rotating unmagnetized plasma. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 063502.Google Scholar
Khalzov, I. V., Ilgisonis, V. I., Smolyakov, A. I. and Velikhov, E. P. 2006 Magnetorotational instability in electrically driven flow of liquid metal: Spectral analysis of global modes. Phys. Fluids 18 (12), 124107.Google Scholar
Khalzov, I. V., Smolyakov, A. I. and Ilgisonis, V. I. 2010 Equilibrium magnetohydrodynamic flows of liquid metals in magnetorotational instability experiments. J. Fluid Mech. 644, 257–280.Google Scholar
Kunz, M. and Lesur, G. 2013 Magnetic self-organization in Hall-dominated magnetorotational turbulence. MNRAS 434, 2295.Google Scholar
Lesur, G., Kunz, M. and Fromang, S. 2014 Thanatology in protoplanetary discs. Astron. Astrophys. 566, A56.Google Scholar
Longaretti, P. Y. and Lesur, G. 2010 Mri-driven turbulent transport: the role of dissipation, channel modes and their parasites. Astron. Astrophys. 516, A51.Google Scholar
Noguchi, K. and Pariev, V. I. 2003 Magnetorotational instability in a Couette flow of plasma. AIP Conf. Proc. 692 (1), 285–292.Google Scholar
Velikhov, E. P. 1959 Stability of an ideally conducting liquid flowing between cylinders rotating in a magnetic field. J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 36, 1398–1404.Google Scholar
Wardle, M. 1999 The balbus-hawley instability in weakly ionized disks. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 307, 849–856.Google Scholar