2014/06/25 by Jonathan Squire, A. Bhattacharjee, Amitava Bhattacharjee · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Azimuth #Classical mechanics #Condensed matter physics #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Instability #Limit (mathematics) #Linear growth #Long wavelength limit #Magnetic field #Magnetohydrodynamics #Magnetorotational instability #Mathematical analysis #Mechanics #Optics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Shearing (physics) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Turbulence #Wavelength #astro-ph.HE #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.025006
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 025006 (2014) · Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2014/06/25 · openalex publication_date 2014/07/10 · arxiv updated 2014/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We analyze the linear growth of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in the short-time limit using nonmodal methods. Our findings are quite different from standard results, illustrating that shearing wave energy can grow at the maximum MRI rate -dΩ/dlnr for any choice of azimuthal and vertical wavelengths. In addition, by comparing the growth of shearing waves with static structures, we show that over short time scales shearing waves will always be dynamically more important than static structures in the ideal limit. By demonstrating that fast linear growth is possible at all wavelengths, these results suggest that nonmodal linear physics could play a fundamental role in MRI turbulence.