Inverse cascades and time-dependent dynamos in MHD flows

DOI10.1016/0167-2789(91)90039-CMaRDI QIDQ756228zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors D. Kharzeev

Publication date 1991

Published in Physica D (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2789(91)90039-c

zbMATH Keywords

anisotropic kinetic alpha effectdynamo instabilitymagnetohydrodynamic instabilitiesnonlinear alpha effect

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of global analysis to the sciences (58Z05) Stability and instability of magnetohydrodynamic and electrohydrodynamic flows (76E25) Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics (76W05)

Review text

This paper addresses the effects of two different kinds of instabilities on magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) flows. The alpha effect occurs in a three- dimensional small-scale fluid flow which is helical or otherwise lacks parity invariance) when it acts on a large-scale magnetic field and generates an electromotive force which is a function of the field itself. The alpha effect may lead to dynamo action, which is the growth of a large-scale magnetic field. An analogous transport effect occurs in ordinary hydrodynamics; when a large-scale velocity field is superimposed on a small-scale flow lacking Galilean invariance, the mean Reynolds stress can be a function of the large-scale flow. This is called the anisotropic kinetic alpha (AKA) effect, and it may lead to the growth of the large-scale flow when the original three-dimensional small-scale flow is anisotropic and lacks parity invariance. The authors examine the phenomenon known as ``inverse cascade whereby energy is transferred from the linearly most unstable modes to successively larger scales, and the mean fields eventually saturate in a state whose dominant mode is that of the system. The authors relate metastable states (states dominated by larger and larger scales) to the existence of a steady cellular solution. Such cellular solutions are unstable, and there is eventually transition to a cellular solution on a larger scale. This suggests the existence of heteroclinic connections going from any steady solution to a steady solution on a larger scale. This picture is supported by the analysis of a simple solvable model.

Recommendations

• Alpha effect in helically forced turbulence.
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 967372
• The α-effect in 2D fast dynamos
• Negative magnetic eddy diffusivity due to oscillogenic \(\alpha\)-effect
• Weakly nonlinear analysis of the  α effect

Cites work

• Helicity is unnecessary for alpha effect dynamos, but it helps
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3611002 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3797424 (Why is no real title available?)
• Spectral comparison principles for the Cahn-Hilliard and phase-field equations, and time scales for coarsening
• The α-chain-termination mutants and their relation to the α-thalassaemias
• Vortex-in-cell simulation of bubble competition in a Rayleigh–Taylor instability

Cited in

(5)

• Inverse cascades in turbulence
• Are the energy and magnetic potential cascades direct or inverse in 2D MHD turbulence?
• Cascade processes in magnetostrophic turbulence
• An iterative study of time independent induction effects in magnetohydrodynamics
• Inverse cascade suppression and shear-layer formation in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence subject to a guide field and misaligned rotation

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