Taylor halos and Taylor spears in odd viscous liquids

Abstract

A body placed in a rigidly rotating fluid becomes circumscribed by a fictitious cylinder with generators parallel to the axis of rotation, a Taylor column. Slowly moving liquid impinging on the body will swerve around the cylinder. Thus, Taylor columns may form when a breeze impinges on a mountain or when slowly moving oceanic water impinges on a seamount, both due to the Earth's rotation. Here, we show that classical non-rotating liquids endowed with an odd or Hall coefficient of viscosity, exhibiting nondissipative behavior, also give rise to Taylor column structures resembling halos or spears. Steady three-dimensional flow of such a liquid becomes effectively two dimensional, swirling around the Taylor column imitating its rigidly rotating counterparts. Formation of Taylor halos and spears is attributed to the propagation of data along characteristics that may be parallel or oblique to a center axis, respectively.