Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 57 / 3

Write the horizontal velocity amplitudes as $(u,v)$ and magnetic amplitudes as $(b_x,b_y)$. The perturbation is horizontally uniform, divergence-free, and has no vertical velocity, so the unperturbed density and pressure are consistent at linear order. In the Keplerian shearing sheet, the horizontal components of the linearized ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations areUse the undivided equations at a zero of $F$. If $F^{\prime \prime }=-k^{2}hF$, the magnetic-force coefficient becomes $ik{v}_A^2$; the stratification cancels. The ideal magnetohydrodynamic induction equation similarly reduces toThe azimuthal induction term is field stretching by the background differential rotation. The four amplitudes obey the homogeneous systemIts determinant must vanish for a nonzero normal mode. Put $A=v_A^2{k}^2$. For nonzero $s$, elimination first gives $(s^2+A)u-2\Omega sv=0$ and $s(s^2+A)v+\Omega (s^2-3A)u/2=0$, whose solvability condition is $(s^2+A{)}^2+{\Omega }^2(s^2-3A)=0$. The original determinant extends the same polynomial to marginal $s=0$. ThusThis is the ideal magnetorotational dispersion relation with the midplane Alfvén speed $v_A=B_0/\sqrt{4\pi {\rho }_0}$. The vertical structure enters through the admissible eigenvalues $k$, rather than through a different horizontal dispersion polynomial. No division by a vanishing growth rate is required in the determinant derivation.

Set $\xi =\tanh (z/H)$, so $h=1-{\xi }^2$ and $d/dz=(1-{\xi }^2)H^{-1}d/d\xi$. The vertical equation becomesFor $|\xi |<1$, division by the common factor gives the Legendre differential equation with eigenvalue $k^2{H}^2$. Requiring boundedness at both surfaces $\xi =\pm 1$ selectsThe second independent solution is unbounded at an endpoint. These are the bounded vertical modes of a sech-squared magnetized disk. The division by $H$ is outside the square root, as in the original PDF; the converted TeX places it incorrectly. The magnetic perturbation involves $F_n^{\prime }$, which tends to zero at either surface.

The constant $n=0$ function has $k=0$. The specified magnetic ansatz contains $1/(ik)$ and must not be applied to it. A uniform horizontal velocity with no magnetic perturbation is an epicyclic motion, not a growing magnetic mode; the zero-wavenumber formal degeneracy does not provide growing MRI at arbitrary field strength. Nontrivial magnetically coupled vertical modes have $n\ge 1$.

For $A>0$, the magnetorotational instability grows when $A<3{\Omega }^2$. Indeed, the quadratic in $s^2$ then has a negative constant term, and one positive root. For $A\ge 3{\Omega }^2$, the two roots are nonpositive, since their sum is negative, their product nonnegative, and their discriminant is ${\Omega }^4+16{\Omega }^{2}A>0$. The smallest nonzero vertical eigenvalue is $k_1^2=2/H^2$, so all vertical modes are stable ifThe strict inequality requested gives stability, and equality is marginal for $n=1$. A sufficiently strong field increases magnetic tension. The unstable MRI needs a sufficiently long vertical wavelength to exchange angular momentum without excessive restoring tension; bounded vertical structure imposes a smallest nonzero effective wavenumber. Beyond the finite-thickness magnetorotational instability criterion, no allowed magnetic mode is long enough to remain unstable.

Let $a=v_A^2{k}^2/{\Omega }^2$. The growing root of the ideal magnetorotational dispersion relation isIts derivative is $y^{\prime }(a)=-1+4/\sqrt{1+16a}$, so the continuum maximum occurs at $a=15/16$, with $s=3\Omega /4$. For the bounded vertical modes of a sech-squared magnetized disk,Modes $n=1,\dots ,5$ are unstable; $n\ge 6$ have $a_n\ge 3$. The function $y$ increases up to $15/16$ and decreases thereafter, so the only candidates for the discrete maximum are $n=2$, with $a_2=1/2$, and $n=3$, with $a_3=1$. Their values are $y(a_2)=1/2$ and $y(a_3)=(\sqrt{17}-3)/2>1/2$. HenceThe associated velocity profile is $F_3=[5{\tanh }^3(z/H)-3\tanh (z/H)]/2$. Discrete vertical quantization makes its growth slightly smaller than the continuum maximum. This is the fastest discrete mode of a stratified magnetorotational instability.