English

Efficient quasi-kinematic large-scale dynamo as the small-scale dynamo saturates

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2019-05-22 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Fluid Dynamics Plasma Physics

Abstract

Large-scale magnetic fields in stars and galaxies are thought to arise by mean-field dynamo action due to the combined influence of both helical turbulence and shear. Those systems are also highly conducting and the turbulence therein leads to a fluctuation (or small-scale) dynamo which more rapidly amplifies magnetic field fluctuations on the eddy scales and smaller. Will this then interfere with and suppress the mean (or large-scale) field growth? Using direct numerical simulations of helical turbulence (with and without shear), we identify a novel quasi-kinematic large-scale dynamo which operates as the small-scale dynamo saturates. Thus both dynamos operate efficiently, one after the other, and lead to the generation of significant large-scale fields.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.08278,
  title  = {Efficient quasi-kinematic large-scale dynamo as the small-scale dynamo saturates},
  author = {Pallavi Bhat and Kandaswamy Subramanian and Axel Brandenburg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.08278},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

8 pages, 11 figures. Comments/feedback/discussions are welcome

R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:13:55.151Z