Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Elliptical flow instability in a conducting fluid triggered by an external magnetic field
Konrad Bajer1, Krzysztof Mizerski
1Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, ul. Pasteura 7, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland. kbajer@fuw.edu.pl
Abstract:
We demonstrate that arbitrarily weak magnetic field may cause violent instability of an anticyclonic, recirculating flow with uniform mean angular velocity. This magnetohydrodynamic instability would trigger turbulence in the cores of vortices where neither centrifugal, exchange instability, nor magnetorotational instability is effective. In the accretion disk vortices this can be an important mechanism of enhanced outward transport of angular momentum.
Related Concept Videos
Magnetic Field Of A Current Loop
Induced Electric Fields
Magnetic Fields
A magnetic field is defined by the force that a charged particle experiences...
Motional Emf
Induced Electric Fields: Applications
Induction
A...
