Related papers: On radiation-zone dynamos
In a recent paper (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005), 184506; physics/0411050) it was shown that a simple mean-field dynamo model with a spherically symmetric helical turbulence parameter alpha can exhibit a number of features which are typical…
Magnetic field amplification in astrophysics ultimately requires an understanding of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Kinetic helicity has long been known to be important for large scale field growth in forced MHD turbulence, and has been…
We propose a new mechanism for turbulent mean-field dynamo in which the magnetic fluctuations resulting from a small-scale dynamo drive the generation of large-scale magnetic fields. This is in stark contrast to the common idea that…
A strong toroidal field can exist in form of a magnetic layer in the overshoot region below the solar convection zone. This motivates a more detailed study of the magnetic buoyancy instability with rotation. We calculate the alpha effect…
The possibility of the existence of quasi-stationary electromagnetic fields in plasma supported by their own self-consistent current follows from Maxwell's equations with field sources. These equations also give rise to a wave equation for…
The buoyant transport of magnetic fields from the solar interior towards the surface plays an important role in the emergence of active regions, the formation of sunspots and the overall solar dynamo. Observations suggest that toroidal flux…
Magnetic helicity is nearly conserved and its evolution equation provides a dynamical feedback on the alpha effect that is distinct from the conventional algebraic alpha quenching. The seriousness of this dynamical alpha quenching is…
The kinetic features of secondary magnetic reconnection in a single flux rope undergoing internal kink instability are studied by means of three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. Several signatures of secondary magnetic reconnection…
The alpha effect is known to be an indispensable energy source of the poloidal magnetic field in the sun or planet. However, the alpha effect is quenched as the magnetic field grows due to the conservation of magnetic helicity. With these…
We present a new mechanism for oscillatory or random reversals of the magnetic field that occur from a stationary dynamo state. The basic ingredient is the existence of two nearly critical dynamo eigenmodes, a stable and an unstable one,…
A simple explicit example of a Roberts-type dynamo is given in which the alpha-effect of mean-field electrodynamics exists in spite of point-wise vanishing kinetic helicity of the fluid flow. In this way it is shown that alpha-effect…
The degree of intermittency of the magnetic field of a large-scale dynamo is considered. Based on simulations it is argued that there is a tendency for the field to become more diffuse and non-intermittent as the dynamo saturates. The…
In the presence of magnetic helicity, inverse transfer from small to large scales is well known in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and has applications in astrophysics, cosmology, and fusion plasmas. Using high resolution direct…
We consider the stability of a configuration consisting of a vertical magnetic field in a planar flow on elliptical streamlines in ideal hydromagnetics. In the absence of a magnetic field the elliptical flow is universally unstable (the…
The saturation mechanism of Magneto-Rotational Instability (MRI) is examined through analytical quasilinear theory and through nonlinear computation of a single mode in a rotating disk. We find that large-scale magnetic field is generated…
We report the first experimental observation of reversals of a dynamo field generated in a laboratory experiment based on a turbulent flow of liquid sodium. The magnetic field randomly switches between two symmetric solutions B and -B. We…
Magnetic quenching of turbulent thermal diffusivity leads to instability of the large-scale field with the production of spatially isolated regions of enhanced field. This conclusion follows from a linear stability analysis in the framework…
Turbulence sustains out-of-equilibrium energy fluxes shaped by conservation laws. Three-dimensional flows conserve energy and sign-indefinite helicity, both being transferred to small scales. Yet in 3D rotating turbulence, energy is…
The periodically varying Lorentz force of the periodic solar magnetic field generated by the solar dynamo can induce two kinds of motions: torsional oscillations and periodic variations in the meridional circulation. Observational evidence…
Turbulent flows are known to produce enhanced effective magnetic and passive scalar diffusivities, which can fairly accurately be determined with numerical methods. It is now known that, if the flow is also helical, the effective magnetic…