The elemental shear dynamo

DOI10.1017/JFM.2012.120MaRDI QIDQ2907104zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors James C. McWilliams

Publication date 7 September 2012

Published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1109.0289

zbMATH Keywords

dynamo theoryMHD turbulenceshear waves

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Stochastic analysis applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M35) Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics (76W05)

Abstract: A quasi-linear theory is presented for how randomly forced, barotropic velocity fluctuations cause an exponentially-growing, large-scale (mean) magnetic dynamo in the presence of a uniform shear flow, $vecU=Sxvec{e}_y$. It is a "kinematic" theory for the growth of the mean magnetic energy from a small initial seed, neglecting the saturation effects of the Lorentz force. The quasi-linear approximation is most broadly justifiable by its correspondence with computational solutions of nonlinear magneto-hydrodynamics, and it is rigorously derived in the limit of large resistivity, $etaightarrowinfty$. Dynamo action occurs even without mean helicity in the forcing or flow, but random helicity variance is then essential. In a sufficiently large domain and with small wavenumber $k_z$ in the direction perpendicular to the mean shearing plane, a positive exponential growth rate $gamma$ can occur for arbitrary values of $eta$, the viscosity $u$, and the random-forcing correlation time $t_f$ and phase angle $het{a}_f$ in the shearing plane. The value of $gamma$ is independent of the domain size. The shear dynamo is "fast", with finite $gamma>0$ in the limit of $etaightarrow0$. Averaged over the random forcing ensemble, the mean magnetic field grows more slowly, if at all, compared to the r.m.s. field (or magnetic energy). In the limit of small Reynolds numbers ($eta,uightarrowinfty$), the dynamo behavior is related to the well-known alpha--omega {it ansatz} when the forcing is steady ($t_{f}ightarrowinfty$) and to the "incoherent" alpha--omega {it ansatz} when the forcing is purely fluctuating.

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Cites work

• Fast dynamo action in a steady flow
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3797424 (Why is no real title available?)
• The origin of our galactic magnetic field

Cited in

(8)

• Moffatt-drift-driven large-scale dynamo due to fluctuations with non-zero correlation times
• Bounds for growth rates for dynamos with shear
• The shear dynamo problem for small magnetic Reynolds numbers
• Can turbulent plane-shear flows support large-scale dynamos?
• Kinematic magnetic dynamo in a random flow with strong average shear
• Exact evaluation of the effect of an arbitrary mean flow in kinematic dynamo theory
• The effect of magnetic field on perturbation evolution in homogeneously sheared flows
• Variational approach to closure of nonlinear dynamical systems: autonomous case

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