English

Two-Loop Turbulent Helical Magnetohydrodynamics: Large-Scale Dynamo and Energy Spectrum

Plasma Physics 2025-06-26 v1 Statistical Mechanics Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

We present a two-loop field-theoretic analysis of incompressible helical magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in fully developed stationary turbulence. A key feature of helical MHD is the appearance of an infrared-unstable ``mass-like'' term in the loop diagrams of the magnetic response function. Physically, this term corresponds to the relevant perturbation of the Joule damping, proportional to ×b\boldsymbol{\nabla} \times \boldsymbol{b} (b=\boldsymbol{b} = magnetic field). Its presence destabilizes the trivial ground state b=0\langle \boldsymbol{b} \rangle = 0 and forces us to look for a mechanism for stabilizing the system. We show that such stabilization can be achieved in two ways: (i) by introducing into induction equation an external mass-like parameter that precisely cancels these dangerous loop corrections (kinematic regime), or (ii) via spontaneous breaking of the rotational symmetry, leading to a new ground state with nonzero large-scale magnetic field (turbulent dynamo regime). For the latter case, we study the two-loop correction to the spontaneously generated magnetic field and demonstrate that Goldstone-like corrections to Alfv\'en modes along with some other anisotropic structures arise. Our results also confirm that the emergent mean magnetic field leads to a steeper slope of the magnetic energy spectrum, 11/3+2γb-11/3 + 2\gamma_{b\star} (with γb=0.10390.4202ρ2\gamma_{b\star} = -0.1039 - 0.4202\rho^2, for ρ1|\rho| \leqslant 1 as the degree of helicity), compared to the Kolmogorov velocity spectrum of 11/3-11/3, thereby breaking equipartition.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.20578,
  title  = {Two-Loop Turbulent Helical Magnetohydrodynamics: Large-Scale Dynamo and Energy Spectrum},
  author = {Michal Hnatič and Tomáš Lučivjanský and Lukáš Mižišin and Yurii Molotkov and Andrei Ovsiannikov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.20578},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in Physical Review E, 46 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:33:17.294Z