To find out whether toroidal field can stably exist in galaxies the current-driven instability of toroidal magnetic fields is considered under the influence of an axial magnetic field component and under the influence of both rigid and differential rotation. The MHD equations are solved in a simplified model with cylindric geometry. We assume the axial field as uniform and the fluid as incompressible. The stability of a toroidal magnetic field is strongly influenced by uniform axial magnetic fields. If both field components are of the same order of magnitude then the instability is slightly supported and modes with m>1 dominate. If the axial field even dominates the most unstable modes have again m>1 but the field is strongly stabilized. All modes are suppressed by a fast rigid rotation where the m=1 mode maximally resists. Just this mode becomes best re-animated for Omega > Omega^A (Omega^A the Alfven frequency) if the rotation has a negative shear. -- Strong indication has been found for a stabilization of the nonaxisymmetric modes for fluids with small magnetic Prandtl number if they are unstable for Pm=1. For rotating fluids the higher modes with m>1 do not play an important role in the linear theory. In the light of our results galactic fields should be marginally unstable against perturbations with m<= 1. The corresponding growth rates are of the order of the rotation period of the inner part of the galaxy.
Cold ($Tsim 10^{4} mathrm{K}$) gas is very commonly found in both galactic and cluster halos. There is no clear consensus on its origin. Such gas could be uplifted from the central galaxy by galactic or AGN winds. Alternatively, it could form in situ by thermal instability. Fragmentation into a multi-phase medium has previously been shown in hydrodynamic simulations to take place once $t_mathrm{cool}/t_mathrm{ff}$, the ratio of the cooling time to the free-fall time, falls below a threshold value. Here, we use 3D plane-parallel MHD simulations to investigate the influence of magnetic fields. We find that because magnetic tension suppresses buoyant oscillations of condensing gas, it destabilizes all scales below $l_mathrm{A}^mathrm{cool} sim v_mathrm{A} t_mathrm{cool}$, enhancing thermal instability. This effect is surprisingly independent of magnetic field orientation or cooling curve shape, and sets in even at very low magnetic field strengths. Magnetic fields critically modify both the amplitude and morphology of thermal instability, with $delta rho/rho propto beta^{-1/2}$, where $beta$ is the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure. In galactic halos, magnetic fields can render gas throughout the entire halo thermally unstable, and may be an attractive explanation for the ubiquity of cold gas, even in the halos of passive, quenched galaxies.
The presence of non-zero helicity in intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMF) has been suggested as a clear signature for their primordial origin. We extend a previous analysis of diffuse Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data from 2.5 to more than 11 years and show that a hint for helical magnetic fields in the 2.5 year data was a statistical fluctuation. Then we examine the detection prospects of helical magnetic fields using individual sources as, e.g., TeV gamma-ray blazars. We find that a detection is challenging employing realistic models for the cascade evolution, the IGMF and the detector resolution in our simulations.
Previously unobservable mirror asymmetry of the solar magnetic field -- a key ingredient of the dynamo mechanism which is believed to drive the 11-year activity cycle -- has now been measured. This was achieved through systematic monitoring of solar active regions carried out for more than 20 years at observatories in Mees, Huairou, and Mitaka. In this paper we report on detailed analysis of vector magnetic field data, obtained at Huairou Solar Observing Station in China. Electric current helicity (the product of current and magnetic field component in the same direction) was estimated from the data and a latitude-time plot of solar helicity during the last two solar cycles has been produced. We find that like sunspots helicity patterns propagate equatorwards but unlike sunspot polarity helicity in each solar hemisphere does not change sign from cycle to cycle - confirming the theory. There are, however, two significant time-latitudinal domains in each cycle when the sign does briefly invert. Our findings shed new light on stellar and planetary dynamos and has yet to be included in the theory.
Local conformal symmetry introduces the conformal curvature (Weyl tensor) that gets split into its (gravito-) electric and magnetic (tensor) parts. Newtonian tidal forces are expected from the gravitoelectric field, whereas general-relativistic frame-dragging effects emerge from the gravitomagnetic field. The symmetric, traceless gravitoelectric and gravitomagnetic tensor fields can be visualized by their eigenvectors and eigenvalues. In this essay, we depict the gravitoelectric and gravitomagnetic fields around a slowly rotating black hole. This suggests that the phenomenon of ultra-fast outflows observed at the centers of active galaxies may give evidence for the gravitomagnetic fields of spinning supermassive black holes. We also question whether the current issues in our contemporary observations might be resolved by the inclusion of gravitomagnetism on large scales in a perturbed FLRW model.
In the study of relativistic jets one of the key open questions is their interaction with the environment on the microscopic level. Here, we study the initial evolution of both electron$-$proton ($e^{-}-p^{+}$) and electron$-$positron ($e^{pm}$) relativistic jets containing helical magnetic fields, focusing on their interaction with an ambient plasma. We have performed simulations of global jets containing helical magnetic fields in order to examine how helical magnetic fields affect kinetic instabilities such as the Weibel instability, the kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (kKHI) and the Mushroom instability (MI). In our initial simulation study these kinetic instabilities are suppressed and new types of instabilities can grow. In the $e^{-}-p^{+}$ jet simulation a recollimation-like instability occurs and jet electrons are strongly perturbed. In the $e^{pm}$ jet simulation a recollimation-like instability occurs at early times followed by a kinetic instability and the general structure is similar to a simulation without helical magnetic field. Simulations using much larger systems are required in order to thoroughly follow the evolution of global jets containing helical magnetic fields.