Fluctuation dynamos in supersonic turbulence at ${\rm Pm} \gtrsim 1$
Abstract
Fluctuation dynamos provide a robust mechanism for amplifying weak seed magnetic fields in turbulent astrophysical plasmas. However, their behaviour in the highly compressible regimes characteristic of the interstellar medium remains incompletely understood. Using high-resolution 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of supersonic turbulence with rms Mach number , we explore fluctuation dynamos across magnetic Prandtl numbers . At , dynamo growth is slower and saturates at lower magnetic-to-kinetic energy ratios, with amplification in the kinematic phase dominated by compression rather than line stretching. In contrast, at , vortical stretching emerges as the dominant mechanism, yielding faster growth, higher saturation levels, and stronger suppression of density--magnetic field correlations by magnetic pressure. This transition is reflected in the correlation coefficient between density and magnetic field strength, which is strongly positive at but decreases significantly at higher . Across all runs, the ratio of velocity-to-magnetic integral scales is , in the saturated phase, independent of , while the ratio of viscous to resistive dissipation scales increases with the increase in . Synthetic Faraday rotation measures reveal coherence lengths of one-fourth to one-third of the forcing scale across the range of explored. Using these coherence scales, we discuss the potential contribution of fluctuation dynamos to Faraday rotation expected from turbulent, gas-rich young disk galaxies.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.01138,
title = {Fluctuation dynamos in supersonic turbulence at ${\rm Pm} \gtrsim 1$},
author = {Ameya Uday Nagdeo and Sharanya Sur and Bhargav Vaidya},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.01138},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Published in ApJ