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Updated: May 27, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Paradoxes of magnetorotational instability and their geometrical resolution
Oleg N Kirillov1, Frank Stefani
1Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Post Office Box 510119, D-01314 Dresden, Germany. o.kirillov@hzdr.de
Abstract:
Magnetorotational instability (MRI) triggers turbulence and enables outward transport of angular momentum in hydrodynamically stable accretion discs. By using the WKB approximation and methods of singular function theory, we resolve two different paradoxes of MRI that appear in the limits of infinite and vanishing magnetic Prandtl number. For the latter case, we derive a strict limit of the critical Rossby number. This limit of Ro(c)=-0.802, which appears for a finite Lundquist number of S=0.618, extends the formerly known inductionless Liu limit of Ro(c)=-0.828 valid at S=0.
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