Stability of exact force-free electrodynamic solutions and scattering from spacetime curvature

Understand

Recently, a family of exact force-free electrodynamic (FFE) solutions was given by Brennan, Gralla and Jacobson, which generalizes earlier solutions by Michel, Menon and Dermer, and other authors.

• These solutions have been proposed as useful models for describing the outer magnetosphere of conducting stars.
• As with any exact analytical solution that aspires to describe actual physical systems, it is vitally important that the solution possess the necessary stability.
• In this paper, we show via fully nonlinear numerical simulations that the aforementioned FFE solutions, despite being highly special in their properties, are nonetheless stable under small perturbations.