Magnethohydrodynamic oscillations in a rotating spherical shell

Abstract

The ray method is used to study the free oscillations of an incompressible, inviscid, perfectly conducting fluid of constant density contained in a rotating spherical shell, in the presence of a constant toroidal magnetic field. For sufficiently large values of the rate of rotation and sufficiently small values of the azimuthal wave number, the oscillations are confined to seven bands of latitude for a range of frequencies, which are more bands than have been found in the non-hydromagnetic case. The phase velocity is shown to have no preference for either eastward or westward drift.