Princeton Center for Heliophysics Seminar

Tayler instability of toroidal magnetic fields is broadly invoked as the main trigger for turbulence and angular momentum transport in stellar radiative zones. I will discuss a recent systematic revision of the linear stability analysis and present global MHD simulations. A new physical picture has emerged where diffusive processes enable instability by causing the overstability of two classes of waves: inertial waves and magnetostrophic waves. Implementation of the new stability criteria in a stellar evolution code reveals that the Tayler instability is suppressed in compositionally stratified regions of low mass stars. This suggests that the possible Tayler-Spruit dynamo may not be able to explain asteroseismic observations of strong core-envelope coupling.