= Steven A. Balbus
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<Steven A. Balbus>, working with <John F. Hawley>, established the astrophysical importance of the <magnetorotational instability> in weakly magnetized <accretion disks>. Their local <linear stability analysis> identified an instability associated with outward-decreasing <angular velocity>, even where the unmagnetized flow would pass the <Rayleigh centrifugal stability criterion>.<A Powerful Local Shear Instability in Weakly Magnetized Disks. I. Linear Analysis by Steven A. Balbus and John F. Hawley>[Abstract and magnetic-tension discussion]{ref}
The result offered a route from differential rotation to fluid fluctuations and outward <angular momentum> transport, allowing gas to accrete without attributing the transport to molecular viscosity alone.
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