In previous work stable approximately axisymmetric equilibrium configurations for magnetic stars were found by numerical simulation. Here I investigate the conditions under which more complex, non-axisymmetric configurations can form. I present numerical simulations of the formation of stable equilibria from turbulent initial conditions and demonstrate the existence of non-axisymmetric equilibria consisting of twisted flux tubes lying horizontally below the surface of the star, meandering around the star in random patterns. Whether such a non-axisymmetric equilibrium or a simple axisymmetric equilibrium forms depends on the radial profile of the strength of the initial magnetic field. The results could explain observations of non-dipolar fields on stars such as the B0.2 main-sequence star tau-Sco or the pulsar 1E 1207.4-5209. The secular evolution of these equilibria due to Ohmic and buoyancy processes is also examined.
All axisymmetric self-similar equilibria of self-gravitating, rotating, isothermal systems are identified by solving the nonlinear Poisson equation analytically. There are two families of equilibria: (1) Cylindrically symmetric solutions in which the density varies with cylindrical radius as R^(-alpha), with 0 <= alpha <= 2. (2) Axially symmetric solutions in which the density varies as f(theta)/r^2, where `r' is the spherical radius and `theta' is the co-latitude. The singular isothermal sphere is a special case of the latter class with f(theta)=constant. The axially symmetric equilibrium con…
The theory of polar magnetic burial in accreting neutron stars predicts that a mountain of accreted material accumulates at the magnetic poles of the star, and that, as the mountain spreads equatorward, it is confined by, and compresses, the equatorial magnetic field. Here, we extend previous, axisymmetric, Grad-Shafranov calculations of the hydromagnetic structure of a magnetic mountain up to accreted masses as high as $\Ma = 6\times 10^{-4}\Msun$, by importing the output from previous calculations (which were limited by numerical problems and the formation of closed bubbles to $\Ma < 10^{-4}…
In this paper, extending the investigation developed in an earlier paper (Cremaschini et al., 2008), we pose the problem of the kinetic description of gravitational Hall-MHD equilibria which may arise in accretion disks (AD) plasmas close to compact objects. When intense EM and gravitational fields, generated by the central object, are present, a convenient approach can be achieved in the context of the Vlasov-Maxwell description. In this paper the investigation is focused primarily on the following two aspects: 1) the formulation of the kinetic treatment of G-Hall-MHD equilibria. Based on the…
(Abridged) We develop an analytical spectral method to solve the equations of equilibrium for a self-gravitating, magnetized fluid body, under the only hypotheses that (a) the equation of state is isothermal, (b) the configuration is scale-free, and (c) the body is electrically neutral. All physical variables are represented as series of scalar and vector spherical harmonics of degree l and order m, and the equilibrium equations are reduced to a set of coupled quadratic algebraic equations for the expansion coefficients of the density and the magnetic vector potential. The method is general, a…
Increasing observations are becoming available about a relatively weak, but persistent, non-axisymmetric magnetic field co-existing with the dominant axisymmetric field on the Sun. It indicates that the non-axisymmetric magnetic field plays an important role in the origin of solar activity. A linear non-axisymmetric alpha2-Omega dynamo model is set up to discuss the characteristics of the axisymmetric m=0 and the first non-axisymmetric m=1 modes and to provide further the theoretical bases to explain the active longitude, flip-flop and other non-axisymmetric phenomena. The model consists of a …
We carry out numerical and mathematical investigations of shear Alfven waves inside of a spherical shell filled with an incompressible conducting fluid, and bathed in a strong dipolar magnetic field. We focus on axisymmetric toroidal and non-axisymmetric modes, in continuation of a previous work by Rincon & Rieutord (2003, A&A, 398, 663). Analytical expressions are obtained for toroidal eigenmodes and their corresponding frequencies at low diffusivities. These oscillations behave like magnetic shear layers, in which the magnetic poles play a key role, and hence become singular when diffusiviti…
The MHD instabilities can generate complex field topologies even if the initial field configuration is a very simple one. We consider the stability properties of magnetic configurations containing a toroidal and an axial field. In this paper, we concentrate mainly on the behavior of non-axisymmetric perturbations in axisymmetric magnetic configurations. The stability is treated by a linear analysis of ideal MHD equations.In the presence of an axial field, it is shown that the instability can occur for a wide range of the azimuthal wavenumber $m$, and its growth rate increases with increasing $…
The consistent theoretical description of gravitational Hall-MHD (G-Hall-MHD) equilibria is of fundamental importance for understanding the phenomenology of accretion disks (AD) around compact objects (black holes, neutron stars, etc.). The very existence of these equilibria is actually suggested by observations, which show evidence of quiescent, and essentially non-relativistic, AD plasmas close to compact stars, thus indicating that accretion disks may be characterized by slowly varying EM and fluid fields. These (EM) fields, in particular the electric field, may locally be extremely intense…
We consider the flow of an electrically conducting fluid between differentially rotating cylinders, in the presence of an externally imposed toroidal field B_0 (r_i/r) e_phi. It is known that the classical, axisymmetric magnetorotational instability does not exist for such a purely toroidal imposed field. We show here that a non-axisymmetric magnetorotational instability does exist, having properties very similar to the axisymmetric magnetorotational instability in the presence of an axial field.
The self-similar equilibrium models of self-gravitating, rotating, isothermal systems are investigated analytically. In these models the rotation velocity is constant and the density varies as $\frac{f(θ, ϕ)}{r^2}$, where $r$ and $θ$ are the spherical radius and the co-latitude, respectively. The nonaxisymmetric solutions contain three free parameters, one of the parameters depends on the rotation velocity. These parameters determine the overall shape of the density distribution. By assuming that the dominant component of the magnetic field is purely toroidal and the ratio of the purely toroid…
We find exact and explicit solutions of the axisymmetric MHD equations of a self-gravitating polytropic gas. These solutions are able to describe a flat (uniform density) subsonic internal core, contracting homologously, of a collapsing cloud with aspherical pressure, aspherical gravitationnal potential, magnetic field and rotation. Two of the solutions describing the collapse of a rotating and magnetized cloud present outflow at the pole or at the equator.
Observations show that solar activity is distributed non-axisymmetrically, concentrating at "preferred longitudes". This indicates the important role of non-axisymmetric magnetic fields in the origin of solar activity. We investigate the generation of the non-axisymmetric fields and their coupling with axisymmetric solar magnetic field. Our kinematic generation (dynamo) model operating in a sphere includes solar differential rotation, which approximates the differential rotation obtained by inversion of helioseismic data, modelled distributions of the turbulent resistivity, non-axisymmetric me…
The generation of solar non-axisymmetric magnetic fields is studied based on a linear alpha2-Omega dynamo model in a rotating spherical frame. The model consists of a solar-like differential rotation, a magnetic diffusivity varied with depth, and three types of alpha-effects with different locations, i.e. the tachocline, the whole convective zone and the sub-surface. Some comparisons of the critical alpha-values of axisymmetric m=0 and longitude-dependent modes m=1,2,3 are presented to show the roles of the magnetic diffusivity in the problem of modes selection. With the changing of diffusivit…
An arbitrary initial magnetic field in an A star evolves into a stable equilibrium. Simulations are presented of the formation of non-axisymmetric equilibria consisting of twisted flux tubes meandering under the surface of the star, and analytic arguments are given relating the stability and form of these equilibria. These results may help to explain observations of Ap stars with very non-dipolar fields. This work is also applicable to other essentially non-convective stars such as white dwarfs and neutron stars.
Understanding how cool stars produce magnetic fields within their interiors is crucial for predicting the impact of such fields, such as the activity cycle of the Sun. In this respect, studying fully convective stars enables us to investigate the role of convective zones in magnetic field generation. We produced a magnetic map of a rapidly rotating, very-low-mass, fully convective dwarf through tomographic imaging from time series of spectropolarimetric data. Our results, which demonstrate that fully convective stars are able to trigger axisymmetric large-scale poloidal fields without differen…
In this third paper in a series on stable magnetic equilibria in stars, I look at the stability of axisymmetric field configurations and in particular at the relative strengths of the toroidal and poloidal components. Both toroidal and poloidal fields are unstable on their own, and stability is achieved by adding the two together in some ratio. I use Tayler's (1973) stability conditions for toroidal fields and other analytic tools to predict the range of stable ratios and then check these predictions by running numerical simulations. It is found that while the poloidal field can account for no…
The hydromagnetic structure of a neutron star accreting symmetrically at both magnetic poles is calculated as a function of accreted mass, M_a, and polar cap radius,starting from a centered magnetic dipole and evolving through a quasistatic sequence of two-dimensional, Grad-Shafranov equilibria. The calculation is the first to track fully the growth of high-order magnetic multipoles, due to equatorward hydromagnetic spreading, while simultaneously preserving flux freezing and a self-consistent mass-flux distribution. Equilibria are constructed numerically by an iterative scheme and analyticall…
I propose a mechanism for axisymmetrical mass loss on the asymptotic giant branch, that may account for the axially symmetric structure of elliptical planetary nebulae. The proposed model operates for slowly rotating AGB stars, having angular velocities of 0.0001 the Keplerian velocity. Such angular velocities could be gained from a planet companion of mass 0.1M(Jupiter), or even from single stars which are fast rotators on the main sequence. The model assumes that dynamo magnetic activity results in the formation of cool spots, above which dust forms much easily. The enhanced magnetic activit…
Current-carrying flows, in the laboratory and in astrophysical jets, can form remarkably stable magnetic structures. Decades of experience shows that such flows often build equilibria that reverse field directions, evolving to an MHD Taylor state, which has remarkable stability properties. We model jets and the magnetic bubbles they build as reversed field pinch equilibria by assuming the driver current to be stiff in the MHD sense. Taking the jet current as rigid and a fixed function of position, we prove a theorem: that the same, simple MHD stability conditions guarantee stability, even afte…
We use a numerical nonlinear multigrid magnetic relaxation technique to investigate the generation of current sheets in three-dimensional magnetic flux braiding experiments. We are able to catalogue the relaxed nonlinear force-free equilibria resulting from the application of deformations to an initially undisturbed region of plasma containing a uniform, vertical magnetic field. The deformations are manifested by imposing motions on the bounding planes to which the magnetic field is anchored. Once imposed the new distribution of magnetic footpoints are then taken to be fixed, so that the rest …
We present an efficient method for building equilibrium multi-component galaxies with non-spherical haloes and bulges. The gist of our approach is to tailor the velocity ellipsoid directly to the geometry of the mass distribution. Thus we avoid computing the anisotropic velocity dispersions which leads to large savings in the cpu budget. The computational time of the algorithm for triaxial equilibria scales linearly with the number of particles, N. The approximate solution to the velocity field causes structural relaxation: tests with N = 50,000 show that fluctuations of the inertia tensor (no…
We calculate axisymmetric oscillations of rotating neutron stars composed of the surface fluid ocean, solid crust, and fluid core, taking account of a dipole magnetic field as strong as $B_S\sim 10^{15}$G at the surface. The adiabatic oscillation equations for the solid crust threaded by a dipole magnetic field are derived in Newtonian dynamics, on the assumption that the axis of rotation is aligned with the magnetic axis so that perturbations on the equilibrium can be represented by series expansions in terms of spherical harmonic functions $Y_l^m(θ,ϕ)$ with different degrees $l$ for a given …
The linear marginal instability of an axisymmetric MHD Taylor-Couette flow of infinite vertical extension is considered. The dependence of the flow stability on magnetic Prandtl number, Pm, and gap-width between rotating cylinders is investigated. There is an unstability for flows with resting outer cylinder even without a magnetic field. Nevertheless, there are solutions with smaller critical Reynolds numbers for certain (weak) magnetic fields. These solutions, however, exist for not too small Pm or large enough gap. For hydrodynamically stable flow, we found that a magnetic field amplitude a…
AIMS: We develop an optimization principle for computing stationary MHD equilibria. METHODS: Our code for the self-consistent computation of the coronal magnetic fields and the coronal plasma uses non-force-free MHD equilibria. Previous versions of the code have been used to compute non-linear force-free coronal magnetic fields from photospheric measurements. The program uses photospheric vector magnetograms and coronal EUV images as input. We tested our reconstruction code with the help of a semi-analytic MHD-equilibrium. The quality of the reconstruction was judged by comparing the exact and…
We study the stability of neutron stars with toroidal magnetic fields by magnetohydrodynamic simulation in full general relativity under assumption of axial symmetry. Nonrotating and rigidly rotating neutron stars are prepared for a variety of magnetic field configuration. For modeling the neutron stars, the polytropic equation of state with the adiabatic index $Γ=2$ is used for simplicity. It is found that nonrotating neutron stars are dynamically unstable for the case that toroidal magnetic field strength varies $\propto \varpi^{2k-1}$ with $k\geq 2$ (here $\varpi$ is the cylindrical radius)…
