Many astrophysical disks, such as protoplanetary disks, are in a regime wherenon-ideal, plasma-specific magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects can significantlyinfluence the behavior of the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Thepossibility of studying these effects in the Plasma Couette Experiment (PCX) isdiscussed. An incompressible, dissipative global stability analysis isdeveloped to include plasma-specific two-fluid effects and neutral collisions,which are inherently absent in analyses of Taylor-Couette flows (TCFs) inliquid metal experiments. It is shown that with boundary driven flows, aion-neutral collision drag body force significantly affects the azimuthalvelocity profile, thus limiting the flows to regime where the MRI is notpresent. Electrically driven flow (EDF) is proposed as an alternative bodyforce flow drive in which the MRI can destabilize at more easily achievableplasma parameters. Scenarios for reaching MRI relevant parameter space andnecessary hardware upgrades are described.
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