BENARD CONVECTION IN A NONLINEAR MAGNETIC FLUID UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A NONVERTICAL MAGNETIC-FIELD

This work examines the convective instability of a horizontal layer of magnetohydrodynamic fluid of variable permeability when subjected to a non-vertical magnetic field. We use a model proposed by P.H. Roberts [9] in the context of neutron stars but the results obtained are also relevant to the area of ferromagnetic fluids. The presence of the variable permeability has no effect on the development of instabilities through the mechanism of stationary convection but influences the threshold of overstable convection which is often the preferred mechanism in non-terrestrial application. In the context of ferromagnetic fluids, both stationary and overstable instability can be expected to be realisable possibilities.