Global simulations of Tayler instability in stellar interiors: a long-time multi-stage evolution of the magnetic field

Abstract

Magnetic fields have been observed in massive Ap/Bp stars and presumably are also present in the radiative zone of solar-like stars. Yet, to date there is no clear understanding of the dynamics of the magnetic field in stably stratified layers. A purely toroidal magnetic field configuration is known to be unstable, developing mainly non-axisymmetric modes. Rotation and a small poloidal field component may lead to a stable configuration. Here we perform global MHD simulations with the EULAG-MHD code to explore the evolution of a toroidal magnetic field located in a layer whose stratification resembles the solar tachocline. Our numerical experiments allow us to explore the initial unstable phase as well as the long-term evolution of the magnetic field. During the first Alfven cycles, we observe the development of the Tayler instability with the prominent longitudinal wavenumber, $m=1$. Rotation decreases the growth rate of the instability, and eventually suppresses it. However, after a stable phase, sudden energy surges lead to the development of higher order modes even for fast rotation. These modes extract energy from the initial toroidal field. Nevertheless, our results show that sufficiently fast rotation leads to a lower saturation energy of the unstable modes, resulting in a magnetic topology with only a small fraction of poloidal field which remains steady for several hundreds of Alfven travel times. At this stage, the system becomes turbulent and the field is prone to turbulent diffusion. The final toroidal-poloidal configuration of the magnetic field may represent an important aspect of the field generation and evolution in stably-stratified layers.