What physics does affect the MRI threshold

Several physical effects, which can considerably decrease the magnetorotational instability (MRI) threshold are discussed. First, we show that MRI features are changed significantly in non-uniform magnetic field. Second, the buoyancy effect is shown to can be destabilizing for azimuthal flow of a resistive plasma. Third, we demonstrate that the rotating fluid may be unstable with respect to non-axisymmetric modes at much lower rotation velocities than with respect to usual symmetric modes.