Continuation and stability of rotating waves in the magnetized spherical Couette system: secondary transitions and multistability

Rotating waves (RW) bifurcating from the axisymmetric basic magnetized spherical Couette (MSC) flow are computed by means of Newton–Krylov continuation techniques for periodic orbits. In addition, their stability is analysed in the framework of Floquet theory. The inner sphere rotates while the outer is kept at rest and the fluid is subjected to an axial magnetic field. For a moderate Reynolds number Re = 10 3 (measuring inner rotation), the effect of increasing the magnetic field strength (measured by the Hartmann number Ha ) is addressed in the range Ha ∈(0, 80) corresponding to the working conditions of the HEDGEHOG experiment at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. The study reveals several regions of multistability of waves with azimuthal wavenumber m = 2, 3, 4, and several transitions to quasi-periodic flows, i.e modulated rotating waves. These nonlinear flows can be classified as the three different instabilities of the radial jet, the return flow and the shear layer, as found in the previous studies. These two flows are continuously linked, and part of the same branch, as the magnetic forcing is increased. Midway between the two instabilities, at a certain critical Ha , the non-axisymmetric component of the flow is maximum.