Large norm inflation of the current in the viscous, non-resistive magnetohydrodynamics equations

Abstract

We consider the ideally conducting, viscous magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations in two dimensions. Specifically, we study the nonlinear dynamics near a combination of Couette flow and a constant magnetic field in a periodic infinite channel. In contrast to the Navier-Stokes equations this system is shown to exhibit algebraic instability and large norm inflation of the magnetic current on non-perturbative time scales.