The effect of shear on fingering convection at low Prandtl number

Fingering convection results from the double-diffusive instability of a stable temperature gradient combined with an unstable compositional gradient. It is thought to play a significant role in the interior of stars, which are intrinsically low Prandtl number fluids. The nonlinear properties of fingering convection as a standalone process are now well understood. However, the effect of other processes such as rotation, shear and magnetic fields for instance remain to be explored and quantified. In this talk I will review what is known about fingering convection, then describe recent linear stability results and DNS results on the effect of shear. We find in particular that moderate shear can strongly suppress transport by fingering convection, which could have important implications in stellar astrophysics.