Sustained Turbulence in Differentially Rotating Magnetized Fluids at Low Magnetic Prandtl Number

Abstract

We show for the first time that sustained turbulence is possible at low magnetic Prandtl number for Keplerian flows with no mean magnetic flux. Our results indicate that increasing the vertical domain size is equivalent to increasing the dynamical range between the energy injection scale and the dissipative scale. This has important implications for a large variety of differentially rotating systems with low magnetic Prandtl number such as protostellar disks and laboratory experiments.

5 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ, changes made in response to referee report

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Dynamo theories
• Magnetorotational dynamo chimeras. The missing link to turbulent accretion disk dynamo models?
• Dynamo Action in a Quasi-Keplerian Taylor-Couette Flow
• Zero net flux MRI-turbulence in disks $-$ sustenance scheme and magnetic Prandtl number dependence
• Magnetorotational Dynamo Action in the Shearing Box
• MRI turbulence in vertically stratified accretion discs at large magnetic Prandtl numbers
• Transport properties of Keplerian flows in extended local domains with no imposed field
• Origin of hydrodynamic instability from noise: from laboratory flow to accretion disk
• Supertransient Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in Keplerian Shear Flows: The role of the Hall Effect