Convective plan-form of two-scale dynamos in a plane layer

Abstract

We study generation of magnetic fields, involving large spatial scales, by convective plan-forms in a horizontal layer. Magnetic modes and their growth rates are expanded in power series in the scale ratio, and the magnetic eddy diffusivity (MED) tensor is derived for flows, symmetric about the vertical axis in a layer. For convective rolls we demonstrate that MED is never below molecular magnetic diffusivity. For cell patterns possessing the symmetries of a rectangle, critical values of molecular magnetic diffusivity for the onset of small- and large-scale magnetic field generation are the same. No instances of negative MED in hexagonal cells have been detected. A family of plan-forms has been found numerically, where MED is negative for molecular magnetic diffusivity over the threshold for the onset of small-scale magnetic field generation. However, the region in the parameter space, where large-scale dynamo action is observed, is small.