Neutrino viscosity and drag: impact on the magnetorotational instability in protoneutron stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how neutrino-induced viscosity and drag influence the growth of the magnetorotational instability in protoneutron stars, revealing conditions under which MRI can develop in different stellar regions.

Contribution

It provides a linear analysis of MRI considering neutrino viscosity and drag, applying it to PNS models to identify regions where MRI can grow under realistic conditions.

Findings

MRI can grow in outer PNS layers with weak magnetic fields at short wavelengths.

Neutrino viscosity suppresses MRI growth in deeper PNS regions unless magnetic fields are sufficiently strong.

MRI growth depends on wavelength regimes, with viscosity dominating longer scales and drag affecting shorter scales.

Abstract

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is a promising mechanism to amplify the magnetic field in fast rotating protoneutron stars. The diffusion of neutrinos trapped in the PNS induces a transport of momentum, which can be modelled as a viscosity on length-scales longer than the neutrino mean free path. This neutrino-viscosity can slow down the growth of MRI modes to such an extent that a minimum initial magnetic field strength of $\gtrsim 10^{12}\, {\rm G}$ is needed for the MRI to grow on a sufficiently short time-scale to potentially affect the explosion. It is uncertain whether the magnetic field of fast rotating progenitor cores is strong enough to yield such an initial magnetic field in PNS. At MRI wavelengths shorter than the neutrino mean free path, on the other hand, neutrino radiation does not act as a viscosity but rather induces a drag on the velocity with a damping rate independent of the wavelength. We perform a linear analysis of the MRI in this regime, and apply our analytical results to the PNS structure from a one-dimensional numerical simulation. We show that in the outer layers of the PNS, the MRI can grow from weak magnetic fields at wavelengths shorter than the neutrino mean free path, while deeper in the PNS MRI growth takes place in the viscous regime and requires a minimum magnetic field strength.