The driving torque of a rotating levitated cylindrical permanent magnet above a superconductor

Due to the Meissner effect, a permanent magnet is levitated, when released above a high temperature superconductor. When there is an inhomogeneous temperature field around the magnet, the magnet might start to oscillate with increasing amplitude until it remains in a continuous rotation. A mathematical model for the described effect is presented which couples heat transfer and electromagnetic forces with the equation of motion, yielding to a multiphysics task. In a detailed analysis it is found, that the torque which drives the rotation of the magnet, is explicitly given in terms of Bessel functions and the Fourier coefficients of order zero and one of the temperature field of the surrounding air.