Related papers: Fast dynamos in weakly ionized gases
The interstellar magnetic field strength and gas density are observed to be correlated, but there is a large dispersion in this relation. In particular, the magnetic field is often observed to be weaker than expected. It is usually assumed…
The diffusion of uni-directional magnetic fields by two dimensional turbulent flows in a weakly ionized gas is studied. The fields here are orthogonal to the plane of fluid motion. This simple model arises in the context of the decay of the…
The small-scale turbulent dynamo is an important process contributing to the cosmic magnetization. In partially ionized astrophysical plasmas, the dynamo growth of magnetic energy strongly depends on the coupling state between ions and…
Irregular galaxies are usually smaller and less massive than their spiral, S0, and elliptical counterparts. Radio observations indicate that a magnetic field is present in irregular galaxies whose value is similar to that in spiral…
Spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, have large-scale magnetic fields with significant energy densities. The dominant theory attributes these magnetic fields to a large-scale dynamo. We review the current status of dynamo theory and…
Spiral galaxies host dynamically important magnetic fields which can affect gas flows in the disks and halos. Total magnetic fields in spiral galaxies are strongest (up to 30 \muG) in the spiral arms where they are mostly turbulent or…
Natural dynamos such as planets and stars generate global scale magnetic field despite the inferred presence of small scale turbulence. Such systems are known as large scale dynamos and are typically driven by convection and influenced by…
We investigate the cosmic ray driven dynamo in the interstellar medium of irregular galaxy. The observations (Chyzy et al. 2000, 2003) show that the magnetic field in irregular galaxies is present and its value reaches the same level as in…
Both observations and modelling of magnetic fields in the diffuse interstellar gas of spiral galaxies are well developed but the theory has been confronted with observations for only a handful of individual galaxies. There is now sufficient…
We consider stochastic reconnection in a magnetized, partially ionized medium. Stochastic reconnection is a generic effect, due to field line wandering, in which the speed of reconnection is determined by the ability of ejected plasma to…
Galactic dynamo models have generally relied on input parameters that are very challenging to constrain. We address this problem by developing a model that uses observable quantities as input: the galaxy rotation curve, the surface…
Galaxies are observed to host magnetic fields with a typical total strength of around 15microgauss. A coherent large-scale field constitutes up to a few microgauss of the total, while the rest is built from strong magnetic fluctuations over…
This paper presents scale invariant/self-similar galactic magnetic dynamo models based on the classic equations, and compares them qualitatively to recently observed magnetic fields in edge-on spiral galaxies. We classify the axially…
Observations show that magnetic fields in the interstellar medium (ISM) often do not respond to increases in gas density as would be naively expected for a frozen-in field. This may suggest that the magnetic field in the diffuse gas becomes…
Recent FERMI observations provide a lower limit of 10^{-15} G for the magnetic field strength in the intergalactic medium (IGM). This is consistent with theoretical expectations based on the Biermann battery effect, which predicts such IGM…
Hydrostatic equilibrium of the multiphase interstellar medium in the solar vicinity is reconsidered, with the regular and turbulent magnetic fields treated separately. The regular magnetic field strength required to support the gas is…
Magnetic fields are an important component of the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. The thermal gas in the ISM has a multiphase structure, broadly divided into ionised, atomic, and molecular phases. The connection between the…
Large-scale magnetic fields in galaxies are thought to be generated by a turbulent dynamo. However the same turbulence also leads to a small-scale dynamo which generates magnetic noise at a more rapid rate. The efficiency of the large-scale…
Mean-field galactic dynamo theory is the leading theory to explain the prevalence of regular magnetic fields in spiral galaxies, but its systematic comparison with observations is still incomplete and fragmentary. Here we compare…
When the ion mean free path much exceeds the Larmor radius in a plasma, the viscous stress tensor is altered dramatically, and depends only upon quantities measured along the field lines. This regime corresponds to typical interstellar…