| Abstract: | A horizontal magnetic field if increasing in strength downwards can cause a horizontal layer of electrically conducting fluid to become unstable, a phenomenon known as ‘magnetic buoyancy’, and sometimes thought to have relevance to magnetic A stars, and to sunspot creation. Analyses that assume infinite thermal and electrical conductivities (and zero viscosity) predict that modes of zero horizontal wave-length, in the direction perpendidular to the field, are maximally unstable but are stabilised by even small Coriolis forces. It is shown here, however, that when proper allowance is made for the finite (though large) conductivities of the fluid the layer may experience a ‘conductive instability’ that grows on the ohmic time-scale and is maximally unstable to a mode of non-zero horizontal extent. |
