title: Subcritical equilibria in Taylor-Couette flow.
abstract: Nonlinear equilibrium states characterized by strongly localized vortex pairs are calculated in the linearly stable parameter region of counterrotating Taylor-Couette flow. These subcritical states are rotating waves whose region of existence is consistent with the critical threshold for relaminarization observed in experiments. For sufficiently rapid outer cylinder rotation the solutions extend beyond the static inner cylinder case to corotation, thus exceeding, for the first time, the boundary defined by the inviscid Rayleigh's stability criterion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Kengo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deguchi
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meseguer
authors.affiliation: Castelldefels School of Telecom and Aerospace Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mellibovsky