Dynamo Onset as a First-Order Transition: Lessons from a Shell Model for Magnetohydrodynamics

We carry out systematic and high-resolution studies of dynamo action in a shell model for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence over wide ranges of the magnetic Prandtl number $Pr_{\rm M}$ and the magnetic Reynolds number $Re_{\rm M}$. Our study suggests that it is natural to think of dynamo onset as a nonequilibrium, first-order phase transition between two different turbulent, but statistically steady, states. The ratio of the magnetic and kinetic energies is a convenient order parameter for this transition. By using this order parameter, we obtain the stability diagram (or nonequilibrium phase diagram) for dynamo formation in our MHD shell model in the $(Pr^{-1}_{\rm M}, Re_{\rm M})$ plane. The dynamo boundary, which separates dynamo and no-dynamo regions, appears to have a fractal character. We obtain hysteretic behavior of the order parameter across this boundary and suggestions of nucleation-type phenomena.