The Magnetic Effect on Dynamical Tide in Rapidly Rotating Astronomical Objects

Abstract

Abstract By numerically solving the equations of rotating magnetohydrodynamics, we study the magnetic effect on dynamical tide. We find that a magnetic field has a significant impact not only on the flow structure, i.e., the internal shear layers in a rotating flow can be destroyed in the presence of a moderate or stronger magnetic field (in the sense that the Alfvén velocity is at least of the order of 0.1 of the surface rotational velocity), but also on the dispersion relation of waves excited by tidal force such that the range of tidal resonance is broadened by a magnetic field. A major result is that the total tidal dissipation scales as a square of the field strength, which can be used to estimate the strength of the internal magnetic field in the astronomical object of a binary system. Moreover, with a moderate or stronger field, the ratio of magnetic dissipation to viscous dissipation is almost inversely proportional to the magnetic Prandtl number (i.e., the ratio of viscosity to magnetic diffusivity); thus, in the astrophysical situation at a small magnetic Prandtl number magnetic dissipation dominates over viscous dissipation with a moderate or stronger field.