Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T18:57:11.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nonlinear compressible magnetoconvection Part 1. Travelling waves and oscillations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

N. E. Hurlburt
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, UK
M. R. E. Proctor
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, UK
N. O. Weiss
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, UK
D. P. Brownjohn
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, UK

Abstract

Two-dimensional compressible convection in a polytropic layer with an imposed vertical magnetic field is studied in a series of numerical experiments. We consider a shallow layer, spanning only a fraction of a scale height in density, and increase the ratio (β−1) of the magnetic to the thermal pressure in a regime where convection sets in at an oscillatory bifurcation. Initially there are stable periodic oscillations (standing wave solutions). For moderate values of β the only deviations from Boussinesq behaviour are where the field is locally intense but as β is decreased magnetic pressure fluctuations become increasingly important. When β is of order unity at the top of the layer standing waves become unstable at higher Rayleigh numbers and travelling waves are preferred. This is an essentially compressible effect in which magnetic pressure plays a crucial role. The associated bifurcation structure is investigated in some detail.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1989 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antia, H. M. & Chitre, S. M. 1979 Waves in the sunspot umbra. Solar Phys. 63, 6778.Google Scholar
Brandt, A. 1984 Multigrid Methods: 1984 Guide with Applications to Fluid Dynamics. GMD-Studieren Nr 85, Bonn.
Bretherton, C. S. & Spiegel, E. A. 1983 Intermittency through modulational instability. Phys. Lett. 96A, 152196.Google Scholar
Cattaneo, F. 1984 Oscillatory convection in sunspots. In The Hydromagnetics of the Sun (ed. T. D. Guyenne), pp. 4750. ESA SP-220.
Chandrasekhar, S. 1961 Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability. Oxford.
Cowling, T. G. 1976 Magnetohydrodynamics (2nd edn). Adam Hilger.
Dangelmayr, G. & Knobloch, E. 1986 Interaction between standing and travelling waves and steady states in magnetoconvection. Phys. Lett. 117A, 394398.Google Scholar
Dangelmayr, G. & Knobloch, E. 1987 The Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation with O(2) symmetry. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 322, 243279.Google Scholar
Deane, A., Knobloch, E. & Toomre, J. 1987 Travelling waves and chaos in thermosolutal convection. Phys. Rev. A 36, 28622869.Google Scholar
Golubitsky, M. & Stewart, I. 1985 Hopf bifurcation in the presence of symmetry. Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 87, 107165.Google Scholar
Gough, D. O. 1989 The linear theory of stellar oscillations. In Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics (ed. J. P. Zahn & J. Zinn-Justin). Elsevier.
Gough, D. O., Moore, D. R., Spiegel, E. A. & Weiss, N. O. 1976 Convective instability in a compressible atmosphere II. Astrophys. J. 206, 536542.Google Scholar
Graham, E. 1975 Numerical simulation of two-dimensional compressible convection. J. Fluid Mech. 70, 689703.Google Scholar
Guckenheimer, J. & Holmes, P. 1983 Nonlinear Oscillations, Dynamical Systems and Bifurcations of Vector Fields. Springer.
Hughes, D. W. & Proctor, M. R. E. 1988 Magnetic fields in the solar convection zone: magnetoconvection and magnetic buoyancy. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 20, 187223.Google Scholar
Hurlburt, N. E. & Toomre, J. 1988 Magnetic fields interacting with nonlinear compressible convection. Astrophys. J. 327, 920932.Google Scholar
Hurlburt, N. E., Toomre, J. & Massaguer, J. M. 1984 Two-dimensional compressible convection extending over multiple scale heights. Astrophys. J. 282, 557573.Google Scholar
Hurlburt, N. E. & Weiss, N. O. 1987 Interaction between magnetic fields and convection. In The Role of Fine-Scale Magnetic Fields on the Structure of the Solar Atmosphere (ed. E.-H. Schröter, M. Vázquez & A. A. Wyller), pp. 3546. Cambridge University Press.
Knobloch, E. 1986 On convection in a horizontal magnetic field with periodic boundary conditions. Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. 36, 161177.Google Scholar
Knobloch, E., Deane, A. E., Toomre, J. & Moore, D. R. 1986 Doubly diffusive waves. Contemp. Maths 56, 203216.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. 1932 Hydrodynamics (6th edn). Cambridge University Press.
Moss, D. L. 1986 Magnetic fields in stars. Phys. Rep. 140, 174.Google Scholar
Nagata, W. 1986 Symmetric Hopf bifurcations and magnetoconvection. Contemp. Maths 56, 237265.Google Scholar
Nagata, M., Proctor, M. R. E. & Weiss, N. O. 1989 Transitions to asymmetry in magnetoconvection. Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. (in press).Google Scholar
Nordlund, A. 1984 Magnetoconvection: the interaction of convection and small scale magnetic fields. In The Hydromagnetics of the Sun (ed. T. D. Guyenne), pp. 3746. ESA SP-220.
Nordlund, Å. 1985 Solar convection. Solar Phys. 100, 209235.Google Scholar
Parker, E. N. 1984 Alfvén waves in a thermally stratified fluid. Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. 29, 112.Google Scholar
Priest, E. R. 1982 Solar Magnetohydrodynamics. Reidel.
Proctor, M. R. E. 1986 Columnar convection in double-diffusive systems. Contemp. Maths 56, 267276.Google Scholar
Proctor, M. R. E. & Weiss, N. O. 1982 Magnetoconvection. Rep. Prog. Phys. 45, 13171379.Google Scholar
Rand, D. 1982 Dynamics and symmetry: predictions for modulated waves in rotating fluids. Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 79, 137.Google Scholar
Rossby, H. T. 1969 A study of Bénard convection with and without rotation. J. Fluid Mech. 36, 309335.Google Scholar
Ruelle, D. 1973 Bifurcations in the presence of a symmetry group. Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 51, 136152.Google Scholar
Spiegel, E. A. 1965 Convective instability in a compressible atmosphere I. Astrophys. J. 141, 10681090.Google Scholar
Stewart, I. N. 1988 Bifurcations with symmetry. In New Directions in Dynamical Systems (ed. T. Bedford & J. W. Swift), pp. 233283. Cambridge University Press.
Walden, R. W., Kolodner, P., Passner, A. & Surko, C. M. 1985 Travelling waves and chaos in convection in binary fluid mixtures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 496499.Google Scholar
Weiss, N. O. 1981a Convection in an imposed magnetic field. Part 1. The development of nonlinear convection. J. Fluid Mech. 108, 247272.Google Scholar
Weiss, N. O. 1981b Convection in an imposed magnetic field. Part 2. The dynamical regime. J. Fluid Mech. 108, 273289.Google Scholar
Weiss, N. O. 1981c The interplay between magnetic fields and convection. J. Geophys. Res. 86, 1168911694.Google Scholar