scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Author

Günther Rüdiger

Other affiliations: University of Potsdam
Bio: Günther Rüdiger is an academic researcher from Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam. The author has contributed to research in topics: Magnetic Prandtl number & Magnetic field. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 63 publications receiving 940 citations. Previous affiliations of Günther Rüdiger include University of Potsdam.


Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results of external magnetic field measurements that indicate the transient occurrence of the Tayler instability in good agreement with numerical predictions are presented.
Abstract: In the current-driven, kink-type Tayler instability (TI) a sufficiently strong azimuthal magnetic field becomes unstable against nonaxisymmetric perturbations. The TI has been discussed as a possible ingredient of the solar dynamo mechanism and a source of the helical structures in cosmic jets. It is also considered as a size-limiting factor for liquid metal batteries. We report on a liquid metal TI experiment using a cylindrical column of the eutectic alloy GaInSn to which electrical currents of up to 8 kA are applied. We present results of external magnetic field measurements that indicate the transient occurrence of the TI in good agreement with numerical predictions. The interference of TI with the competing large-scale convection, resulting from Joule heating, is also discussed.

123 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the evolution of magnetic fields under the influence of Hall drift and Ohmic decay is considered, and it is shown that the amplitude of these oscillations can be quite substantial, with some higher harmonics becoming comparable with the original field.
Abstract: We consider the evolution of magnetic fields under the influence of Hall drift and Ohmic decay. The governing equation is solved numerically, in a spherical shell with ri/ro = 0.75. Starting with simple free-decay modes as initial conditions, we then consider the subsequent evolution. The Hall effect induces so-called helicoidal oscillations, in which energy is redistributed among the different modes. We find that the amplitude of these oscillations can be quite substantial, with some of the higher harmonics becoming comparable with the original field. Nevertheless, this transfer of energy to the higher harmonics is not sufficient to accelerate significantly the decay of the original field, at least not at the RB = O(100) parameter values accessible to us, where this Hall parameter RB measures the ratio of the Ohmic time-scale to the Hall time-scale. We do find clear evidence though of increasingly fine structures developing for increasingly large RB, suggesting that perhaps this Hall-induced cascade to ever-shorter lengthscales is eventually sufficiently vigorous to enhance the decay of the original field. Finally, the implications for the evolution of neutron star magnetic fields are discussed.

104 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results of a liquid metal Taylor-Couette experiment are reported that shows the occurrence of an azimuthal MRI in the expected range of Hartmann numbers.
Abstract: The azimuthal version of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is a nonaxisymmetric instability of a hydrodynamically stable differentially rotating flow under the influence of a purely or predominantly azimuthal magnetic field. It may be of considerable importance for destabilizing accretion disks, and plays a central role in the concept of the MRI dynamo. We report the results of a liquid metal Taylor-Couette experiment that shows the occurrence of an azimuthal MRI in the expected range of Hartmann numbers.

93 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The magnetorotational instability (MRI) plays a key role in the formation of stars and black holes, by enabling outward angular momentum transport in accretion discs as discussed by the authors, and the use of combined axial and azimuthal magnetic fields allows the investigation of this effect in liquid metal flows at moderate Reynolds and Hartmann numbers.
Abstract: The magnetorotational instability (MRI) plays a key role in the formation of stars and black holes, by enabling outward angular momentum transport in accretion discs. The use of combined axial and azimuthal magnetic fields allows the investigation of this effect in liquid metal flows at moderate Reynolds and Hartmann numbers. A variety of experimental results is presented showing evidence for the occurrence of the MRI in a Taylor?Couette flow using the liquid metal alloy GaInSn.

73 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the variation of surface differential rotation and meridional flow along the lower part of the zero age main sequence (ZAMS) and found a strong dependence of the surface rotation on the effective temperature.
Abstract: We study the variation of surface differential rotation and meridional flow along the lower part of the zero age main sequence (ZAMS). We first compute a sequence of stellar models with masses from 0.3 to 1.5 solar masses. We then construct mean field models of their outer convection zones and compute differential rotation and meridional flows by solving the Reynolds equation with transport coefficients from the second order correlation approximation. For a fixed rotation period of 2.5 d we find a strong dependence of the surface differential rotation on the effective temperature with weak surface shear for M dwarfs and very large values for F stars. The increase with effective temperature is modest below 6000 K but very steep above 6000 K. The meridional flow shows a similar variation with temperature but the increase with temperature is not quite so steep. Both the surface rotation and the meridional circulation are solar-type over the entire temperature range. We also study the dependence of differential rotation and meridional flow on the rotation period for masses. from 0.3 to 1.1 solar masses. The variation of the differential rotation with period is weak except for very rapid rotation. The meridional flow shows a systematic increase of the flow speed with the rotation rate. Numerical experiments in which either the Λ effect is dropped in the Reynolds stress or the baroclinic term in the equation of motion is canceled show that for effective temperatures below 6000 K the Reynolds stress is the dominant driver of differential rotation (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

69 citations


Cited by
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) as discussed by the authors is an open source software package for modeling the evolution of stellar structures and composition. But it is not suitable for large-scale systems such as supernovae.
Abstract: We substantially update the capabilities of the open source software package Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), and its one-dimensional stellar evolution module, MESA star. Improvements in MESA star's ability to model the evolution of giant planets now extends its applicability down to masses as low as one-tenth that of Jupiter. The dramatic improvement in asteroseismology enabled by the space-based Kepler and CoRoT missions motivates our full coupling of the ADIPLS adiabatic pulsation code with MESA star. This also motivates a numerical recasting of the Ledoux criterion that is more easily implemented when many nuclei are present at non-negligible abundances. This impacts the way in which MESA star calculates semi-convective and thermohaline mixing. We exhibit the evolution of 3-8 M ? stars through the end of core He burning, the onset of He thermal pulses, and arrival on the white dwarf cooling sequence. We implement diffusion of angular momentum and chemical abundances that enable calculations of rotating-star models, which we compare thoroughly with earlier work. We introduce a new treatment of radiation-dominated envelopes that allows the uninterrupted evolution of massive stars to core collapse. This enables the generation of new sets of supernovae, long gamma-ray burst, and pair-instability progenitor models. We substantially modify the way in which MESA star solves the fully coupled stellar structure and composition equations, and we show how this has improved the scaling of MESA's calculational speed on multi-core processors. Updates to the modules for equation of state, opacity, nuclear reaction rates, and atmospheric boundary conditions are also provided. We describe the MESA Software Development Kit that packages all the required components needed to form a unified, maintained, and well-validated build environment for MESA. We also highlight a few tools developed by the community for rapid visualization of MESA star results.

2,761 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current understanding of astrophysical magnetic fields is reviewed in this paper, focusing on their generation and maintenance by turbulence, where analytical and numerical results are discussed both for small scale dynamos, which are completely isotropic, and for large scale dynamo, where some form of parity breaking is crucial.

1,548 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the exotic physics of high magnetic field regime was discussed, where a new array of processes becomes possible and even dominant and where familiar processes acquire unusual properties, including free particles, atoms, molecules, plasma and condensed matter in strong magnetic fields, photon propagation in magnetized plasmas, freeparticle radiative processes, the physics of neutron star interiors and field evolution and decay mechanisms.
Abstract: There has recently been growing evidence for the existence of neutron stars possessing magnetic fields with strengths that exceed the quantum critical field strength of 4.4 × 1013 G, at which the cyclotron energy equals the electron rest mass. Such evidence has been provided by new discoveries of radio pulsars having very high spin-down rates and by observations of bursting gamma-ray sources termed magnetars. This paper will discuss the exotic physics of this high-field regime, where a new array of processes becomes possible and even dominant and where familiar processes acquire unusual properties. We review the physical processes that are important in neutron star interiors and magnetospheres, including the behaviour of free particles, atoms, molecules, plasma and condensed matter in strong magnetic fields, photon propagation in magnetized plasmas, free-particle radiative processes, the physics of neutron star interiors and field evolution and decay mechanisms. Application of such processes in astrophysical source models, including rotation-powered pulsars, soft gamma-ray repeaters, anomalous x-ray pulsars and accreting x-ray pulsars will also be discussed. Throughout this review, we will highlight the observational signatures of high magnetic field processes, as well as the theoretical issues that remain to be understood.

740 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This book is coming as the best seller book today and when you are really a good reader or you're fans of the author, it does will be funny if you don't have this book.
Abstract: Follow up what we will offer in this article about philosophical transactions of the royal society of london series b biological sciences no 600 vol 233 studies of the post glacial history of british vegetation x correlation between climate forest composition prehistoric agriculture and peat st. You know really that this book is coming as the best seller book today. So, when you are really a good reader or you're fans of the author, it does will be funny if you don't have this book. It means that you have to get this book. For you who are starting to learn about something new and feel curious about this book, it's easy then. Just get this book and feel how this book will give you more exciting lessons.

607 citations