Magnetorotational instability in electrically driven fluids

The linear stability of electrically driven flow of liquid metal in circular channel in the presence of vertical magnetic field is studied. It is shown that the instability threshold of such flow is determined by magnetorotational instability of non-axisymmetric modes ($m\neq0$) and does not depend on the type of the fluid if magnetic Prandtl number is small $\Pr\ll1$. Our numerical results are found to be in a good agreement with available experimental data from Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory, France [P. Moresco and T. Alboussi\`{e}re, J. Fluid Mech. \textbf{504}, 167 (2004)].