Nonlinear simulations of magnetic instabilities in stellar radiation zones: The role of rotation and shear

Using the 3-dimensional ASH code, we have studied numerically the instabilities that occur in stellar radiation zones in presence of large-scale magnetic fields, rotation and large-scale shear. We confirm that some configurations are linearly unstable, as predicted by Tayler and collaborators, and we determine the saturation level of the instability. We find that rotation modifies the peak of the most unstable wave number of the poloidal instability but not its growth rate as much as in the case of the m = 1 toroidal instability for which it is changed to sigma = sigma(2)(A)/Omega. Further in the case with rotation and shear, we found no sign of the dynamo mechanism suggested recently by Spruit even though we possess the essential ingredients (Tayler's m = 1 instability and a large scale shear) supposedly at work. (C) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.