Related papers: Decay of trefoil and other magnetic knots
Observations have shown that the Sun's magnetic field has helical structures. The helicity content in magnetic field configurations is a crucial constraint on the dynamical evolution of the system. Since helicity is connected with the…
We show that in decaying hydromagnetic turbulence with initial kinetic helicity, a weak magnetic field eventually becomes fully helical. The sign of magnetic helicity is opposite to that of the kinetic helicity - regardless of whether or…
For magnetic knots and links in plasmas we introduce an internal twist and study their dynamical behavior in numerical simulations. We use a set of helical and non-helical configurations and add an internal twist that cancels the helicity…
Helicity, a measure of the linkage of flux lines, has subtle and largely unknown effects upon dynamics. Both magnetic and hydrodynamic helicity are conserved for ideal systems and could suppress nonlinear dynamics. What actually happens is…
Three-dimensional images of evolving numerical trefoil vortex knots are used to study the growth and decay of the enstrophy and helicity. Negative helicity density ($h<0$) plays several roles. First, sheets of oppositely-signed helicity…
We present calculations of the relaxation of magnetic field structures that have the shape of particular knots and links. A set of helical magnetic flux configurations is considered, which we call $n$-foil knots of which the trefoil knot is…
Some common properties of helical magnetic fields in decaying and driven turbulence are discussed. These include mainly the inverse cascade that produces fields on progressively larger scales. Magnetic helicity also restricts the evolution…
It is shown that in magnetohydrodynamics, the shapes of the magnetic energy and magnetic helicity spectra can influence whether the magnetic helicity resistive dissipation time scale is longer, equal to, or shorter than that of magnetic…
Magnetic helicity, and more broadly magnetic field line topology, impose constraints on the plasma dynamics. Helically interlocked magnetic rings are in a non-trivial topological state. It is harder to bring them into a topologically…
We analyze the decay laws of the kinetic and magnetic energies and the evolution of correlation lengths in freely decaying incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Scale invariance of MHD equations assures that, in the case of…
The mathematics and physics of each of the three aspects of magnetic field evolution -- topology, energy, and helicity -- is remarkably simple and clear. When the resistivity $\eta$ is small compared to an imposed evolution, $a/v$,…
Newly emerging magnetic flux can show a complicated linked or interwoven topology of the magnetic field. The complexity of this linkage or knottedness of magnetic flux is related to the free energy stored in the magnetic field. Magnetic…
The role of magnetic helicity in astrophysical large-scale dynamos is reviewed and compared with cases where there is no energy supply and an initial magnetic field can only decay. In both cases magnetic energy tends to get redistributed to…
We show that oppositely directed fluxes of energy and magnetic helicity coexist in the inertial range in fully developed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence with small-scale sources of magnetic helicity. Using a helical shell model of MHD…
The extent to which large scale magnetic fields are susceptible to turbulent diffusion is important for interpreting the need for in situ large scale dynamos in astrophysics and for observationally inferring field strengths compared to…
Stability and reconnection of magnetic fields play a fundamental role in natural and man-made plasma. In these applications the field's topology determines the stability of the magnetic field. Here I will describe the importance of one…
We investigate the evolution of field line helicity for magnetic fields that connect two boundaries without null points, with emphasis on localized finite-B magnetic reconnection. Total (relative) magnetic helicity is already recognized as…
The energy of the stochastic magnetic field is bounded from below by a topological quantity expressing the degree of linkage of the field lines. When the bound is saturated one can assume that the storage of a certain magnetic energy…
The free decay of MHD turbulence at large Reynolds numbers is studied numerically using a shell model. We study the statistical properties based on representative sample of realisations (128 realisations for each type of initial conditions)…
The Hosking integral, which characterizes magnetic helicity fluctuations in subvolumes, is known to govern the decay of magnetically dominated turbulence. Here we show that, when the evolution of the magnetic field is controlled by the…