Related papers: Instability of twisted magnetar magnetospheres
Pulsar spindown forms a reliable yet enigmatic prototype for the energy loss processes in many astrophysical objects including accretion disks and back holes. In this paper we review the physics of pulsar magnetospheres, concentrating on…
We study the stability of Hall MHD with strong magnetic fields in which Landau quantization of electrons is important. We find that the strong-field Hall modes can be destabilized by the dependence of the differential magnetic…
The electrostatic shear-flow-driven ion cyclotron instability of magnetic field aligned sheared plasma flow is investigated analytically. It is shown that the shear-flow-driven electrostatic ion cyclotron instability can be considered as a…
Bright outbursts from Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) are believed to be caused by instabilities in ultramagnetized neutron stars, powered by a decaying magnetic field. It was originally thought that these…
We show that under very general conditions, cluster plasmas threaded by weak magnetic fields are subject to very fast growing plasma instabilities driven by the anisotropy of the plasma pressure (viscous stress) with respect to the local…
Scale invariance is a hallmark of many natural systems, including solar flares, where energy release spans a vast range of scales. Recent computational advances, at the level of both algorithmics and hardware, have enabled high-resolution…
In a previous paper (Ouyed et al. 2004) we presented a new model for soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGR), based on the onset of colour superconductivity in quark stars. In this model, the bursts result from the reorganization of the exterior…
The question of the origin and evolution of magnetic fields in stars possessing a radiative envelope, like the A-type stars, is still regarded as a challenge for stellar physics. Those zones are likely to be differentially rotating, which…
The stability of large-scale magnetic fields in rotating stars is explored, using 3D numerical hydrodynamics to follow the evolution of an initial poloidal field. It is found that the field is subject to an instability, located initially on…
We establish a variational framework for nonlinear instabilities in a setting of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. We apply a variational method to various kind of smooth steady states which are shown to be nonlinearly unstable…
The energy released in a magnetic material by reversing spins as they relax toward equilibrium can lead to a dynamical instability that ignites self-sustained rapid relaxation along a deflagration front that propagates at a constant…
We study the coupling of the force-free magnetosphere to the long-term internal evolution of a magnetar. We allow the relation between the poloidal and toroidal stream functions - that characterizes the magnetosphere - to evolve freely…
We consider the dynamics of a mechanical failure induced by a shear stress in a strongly magnetized neutron-star crust. We show that even if the elastic properties of the crust allow the creation of a shear crack, the strongly sheared…
We report on the formation of surface instabilities in a layer of thermoreversible ferrogel when exposed to a vertical magnetic field. Both static and time dependent magnetic fields are employed. Under variations of temperature, the…
We model the Parker instability in vertically stratified isothermal gas using non-ideal MHD three-dimensional simulations. Rotation, especially differential, more strongly and diversely affects the nonlinear state than the linear stage…
Giant $\gamma$-ray flares comprise the most extreme radiation events observed from magnetars. Developing on (sub)millisecond timescales and generating vast amounts of energy within a fraction of a second, the initial phase of these…
Turbulence in a conducting plasma can amplify seed magnetic fields in what is known as the turbulent, or small-scale, dynamo. The associated growth rate and emergent magnetic-field geometry depend sensitively on the material properties of…
The force-free coronal loop model by Titov & D\'emoulin (1999} is found to be unstable with respect to the ideal kink mode, which suggests this instability as a mechanism for the initiation of flares. The long-wavelength ($m=1$) mode grows…
Magnetars are a kind of pulsars powered mainly by superhigh magnetic fields. They are popular sources with many unsolved issues in themselves, but also linked to various high energy phenomena, such as QPOs, giant flares, fast radio bursts…
Magnetized plasma columns and extended magnetic structures with both footpoints anchored to a surface layer are an important building block of astrophysical dissipation models. Current loops shining in X-rays during the growth of plasma…