Elliptic and magneto-elliptic instabilities of disk vortices

Abstract

Vortices are the fundamental units of turbulent flow. Understanding their stability properties therefore provides fundamental insights on the nature of turbulence itself. In this contribution I briefly review the phenomenological aspects of the instability of elliptic streamlines, in the hydro (elliptic instability) and hydromagnetic (magneto-elliptic instability) regimes. Vortex survival in disks is a balance between vortex destruction by these mechanisms, and vortex production by others, namely, the Rossby wave instability and the baroclinic instability.