Generation Of Large-scale Magnetic Fields Research Articles

On the connections between solar and stellar dynamo models

AbstractWe here discuss the various dynamo models which have been designed to explain the generation and evolution of large-scale magnetic fields in stars. We focus on the models that have been applied to the Sun and can be tested for other solar-type stars now that modern observational techniques provide us with detailed stellar magnetic field observations. Mean-field flux-transport dynamo models have been developed for decades to explain the solar cycle and applications to more rapidly-rotating stars are discussed. Tremendous recent progress has been made on 3D global convective dynamo models. They do not however for now produce regular flux emergence that could be responsible for surface active regions and questions about the role of these active regions in the dynamo mechanism are still difficult to address with such models. We finally discuss 3D kinematic dynamo models which could constitute a promising combined approach, in which data assimilation could be applied.

Helicity and celestial magnetism

This informal article discusses the central role of magnetic and kinetic helicity in relation to the evolution of magnetic fields in geophysical and astrophysical contexts. It is argued that the very existence of magnetic fields of the intensity and scale observed is attributable in large part to the chirality of the background turbulence or random-wave field of flow, the simplest measure of this chirality being non-vanishing helicity. Such flows are responsible for the generation of large-scale magnetic fields which themselves exhibit magnetic helicity. In the geophysical context, the turbulence has a ‘magnetostrophic’ character in which the force balance is primarily that between buoyancy forces, Coriolis forces and Lorentz forces associated with the dynamo-generated magnetic field; the dominant nonlinearity here arises from the convective transport of buoyant elements erupting from the ‘mushy zone’ at the inner core boundary. At the opposite extreme, in a highly conducting low-density plasma, the near-invariance of magnetic field topology (and of associated helicity) presents the challenging problem of ‘magnetic relaxation under topological constraints’, of central importance both in astrophysical contexts and in controlled-fusion plasma dynamics. These problems are reviewed and open issues, particularly concerning saturation mechanisms, are reconsidered.

DEPENDENCE OF STELLAR MAGNETIC ACTIVITY CYCLES ON ROTATIONAL PERIOD IN A NONLINEAR SOLAR-TYPE DYNAMO

ABSTRACT We study the turbulent generation of large-scale magnetic fields using nonlinear dynamo models for solar-type stars in the range of rotational periods from 14 to 30 days. Our models take into account nonlinear effects of dynamical quenching of magnetic helicity, and escape of magnetic field from the dynamo region due to magnetic buoyancy. The results show that the observed correlation between the period of rotation and the duration of activity cycles can be explained in the framework of a distributed dynamo model with a dynamical magnetic feedback acting on the turbulent generation from either magnetic buoyancy or magnetic helicity. We discuss implications of our findings for the understanding of dynamo processes operating in solar-like stars.

Radially dependent large-scale dynamos in global cylindrical shear flows and the local cartesian limit

For cylindrical differentially rotating plasmas, we study large-scale magnetic field generation from finite amplitude non-axisymmetric perturbations by comparing numerical simulations with quasi-linear analytic theory. When initiated with a vertical magnetic field of either zero or finite net flux, our global cylindrical simulations exhibit the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and large scale dynamo growth of radially alternating mean fields, averaged over height and azimuth. This dynamo growth is explained by our analytic calculations of a non-axisymmetric fluctuation-induced EMF that is sustained by azimuthal shear of the fluctuating fields. The standard "Omega effect" (shear of the mean field by differential rotation) is unimportant. For the MRI case, we express the large-scale dynamo field as a function of differential rotation. The resulting radially alternating large-scale fields may have implications for angular momentum transport in disks and corona. To connect with previous work on large scale dynamos with local linear shear and identify the minimum conditions needed for large scale field growth, we also solve our equations in local Cartesian coordinates. We find that large scale dynamo growth in a linear shear flow without rotation can be sustained by shear plus non-axisymmetric fluctuations -- even if not helical, a seemingly previously unidentified distinction. The linear shear flow dynamo emerges as a more restricted version of our more general new global cylindrical calculations.

Large-scale magnetic field generation by asymmetric laser-pulse interactions with a plasma in low-intensity regime

We propose a way to enhance the strength of self-generated magnetic field from laser-plasma interactions by incorporating the combined role of pulse asymmetricity and plasma inhomogeneity. The pulse asymmetry combined with the plasma inhomogeneity contributes for strong nonlinear current within the pulse body; consequently, a stronger magnetic field can be produced. The nature of self-generated magnetic field is “Quasistatic” that means the self-generated magnetic field varies on the time scale of the period of laser radiation. Our results show that the magnetic-field generated by a temporally asymmetric laser pulse is many-folds higher than the magnetic-field generated by a symmetric laser pulse in plasmas. The present study predicts the generation of magnetic field of the order of 15 T for the laser intensity of ∼1014 cm−2. Our study might be applicable to improve the accelerated bunch quality in laser wakefield acceleration mechanism.

The magnetic shear-current effect: generation of large-scale magnetic fields by the small-scale dynamo

A novel large-scale dynamo mechanism, the magnetic shear-current effect, is discussed and explored. The effect relies on the interaction of magnetic fluctuations with a mean shear flow, meaning the saturated state of the small-scale dynamo can drive a large-scale dynamo – in some sense the inverse of dynamo quenching. The dynamo is non-helical, with the mean field ${\it\alpha}$ coefficient zero, and is caused by the interaction between an off-diagonal component of the turbulent resistivity and the stretching of the large-scale field by shear flow. Following up on previous numerical and analytic work, this paper presents further details of the numerical evidence for the effect, as well as an heuristic description of how magnetic fluctuations can interact with shear flow to produce the required electromotive force. The pressure response of the fluid is fundamental to this mechanism, which helps explain why the magnetic effect is stronger than its kinematic cousin, and the basic idea is related to the well-known lack of turbulent resistivity quenching by magnetic fluctuations. As well as being interesting for its applications to general high Reynolds number astrophysical turbulence, where strong small-scale magnetic fluctuations are expected to be prevalent, the magnetic shear-current effect is a likely candidate for large-scale dynamo in the unstratified regions of ionized accretion disks. Evidence for this is discussed, as well as future research directions and the challenges involved with understanding details of the effect in astrophysically relevant regimes.

Generation of Zonal Flow and Magnetic Field by Planetary Waves in the Earth’s Ionosphere

Possibility of generation of large-scale sheared zonal flow and magnetic field by coupled under the typical ionospheric conditions short-scale planetary low-frequency waves is shown. Propagation of coupled internal-gravity-Alfven, Rossby-Khantadze, Rossby-Alfven-Khantadze and collision-less electron skin depth order drift-Alfven waves is revealed and investigated in detail. To describe the nonlinear interaction of such coupled waves with sheared zonal flow the corresponding nonlinear equations are deduced. The instability mechanism is based on the nonlinear parametric triple interaction of the finite amplitude short-scale planetary waves leading to the inverse energy cascade toward the longer wavelengths. It is shown that under such interaction intense sheared magnetic fields can be generated. Appropriate growth rates are discussed in detail.

Hindered Energy Cascade in Highly Helical Isotropic Turbulence.

The conventional approach to the turbulent energy cascade, based on Richardson-Kolmogorov phenomenology, ignores the topology of emerging vortices, which is related to the helicity of the turbulent flow. It is generally believed that helicity can play a significant role in turbulent systems, e.g., supporting the generation of large-scale magnetic fields, but its impact on the energy cascade to small scales has never been observed. We suggest, for the first time, a generalized phenomenology for isotropic turbulence with an arbitrary spectral distribution of the helicity. We discuss various scenarios of direct turbulent cascades with new helicity effect, which can be interpreted as a hindering of the spectral energy transfer. Therefore, the energy is accumulated and redistributed so that the efficiency of nonlinear interactions will be sufficient to provide a constant energy flux. We confirm our phenomenology by high Reynolds number numerical simulations based on a shell model of helical turbulence. The energy in our model is injected at a certain large scale only, whereas the source of helicity is distributed over all scales. In particular, we found that the helical bottleneck effect can appear in the inertial interval of the energy spectrum.

COHERENT NONHELICAL SHEAR DYNAMOS DRIVEN BY MAGNETIC FLUCTUATIONS AT LOW REYNOLDS NUMBERS

Nonhelical shear dynamos are studied with a particular focus on the possibility of coherent dynamo action. The primary results -- serving as a follow up to the results of Squire & Bhattacharjee [arXiv:1506.04109 (2015)] -- pertain to the "magnetic shear-current effect" as a viable mechanism to drive large-scale magnetic field generation. This effect raises the interesting possibility that the saturated state of the small-scale dynamo could drive large-scale dynamo action, and is likely to be important in the unstratified regions of accretion disk turbulence. In this paper, the effect is studied at low Reynolds numbers, removing the complications of small-scale dynamo excitation and aiding analysis by enabling the use of quasi-linear statistical simulation methods. In addition to the magnetically driven dynamo, new results on the kinematic nonhelical shear dynamo are presented. These illustrate the relationship between coherent and incoherent driving in such dynamos, demonstrating the importance of rotation in determining the relative dominance of each mechanism.

Generation of Large-Scale Magnetic Fields by Small-Scale Dynamo in Shear Flows.

We propose a new mechanism for a 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 small-scale magnetic fields should be harmful to large-scale dynamo action. These dynamos occur in the presence of a large-scale velocity shear and do not require net helicity, resulting from off-diagonal components of the turbulent resistivity tensor as the magnetic analogue of the "shear-current" effect. Given the inevitable existence of nonhelical small-scale magnetic fields in turbulent plasmas, as well as the generic nature of velocity shear, the suggested mechanism may help explain the generation of large-scale magnetic fields across a wide range of astrophysical objects.

NEGATIVE MAGNETIC EDDY DIFFUSIVITIES FROM THE TEST-FIELD METHOD AND MULTISCALE STABILITY THEORY

The generation of large-scale magnetic field in the kinematic regime in the absence of an alpha-effect is investigated by following two different approaches, namely the test-field method and multiscale stability theory relying on the homogenisation technique. We show analytically that the former, applied for the evaluation of magnetic eddy diffusivities, yields results that fully agree with the latter. Our computations of the magnetic eddy diffusivity tensor for the specific instances of the parity-invariant flow-IV of G.O. Roberts and the modified Taylor-Green flow in a suitable range of parameter values confirm the findings of previous studies, and also explain some of their apparent contradictions. The two flows have large symmetry groups; this is used to considerably simplify the eddy diffusivity tensor. Finally, a new analytic result is presented: upon expressing the eddy diffusivity tensor in terms of solutions to auxiliary problems for the adjoint operator, we derive relations between magnetic eddy diffusivity tensors that arise for opposite small-scale flows v(x) and -v(x).

Large-scale weakly nonlinear perturbations of convective magnetic dynamos in a rotating layer

We present a new mechanism for generation of large-scale magnetic field by thermal convection which does not involve the α-effect. We consider weakly nonlinear perturbations of space-periodic steady convective magnetic dynamos in a rotating layer of incompressible electrically conducting fluid that were identified in our previous work. The perturbations have a spatial scale in the horizontal direction that is much larger than the period of the perturbed convective magnetohydrodynamic state. Following the formalism of the multiscale stability theory, we have derived the system of amplitude equations governing the evolution of the leading terms in the expansion of the perturbations in power series in the scale ratio. This asymptotic analysis is more involved than in the cases considered earlier, because the kernel of the operator of linearisation has zero-mean neutral modes whose origin lies in the spatial invariance of the perturbed regime, the operator reduced on the generalised kernel has two Jordan normal form blocks of size two, and simplifying symmetries of the perturbed state are now missing. Numerical results for the amplitude equations show that a large-scale perturbation, periodic in slow horizontal variable, either converges to a small-scale neutral stability mode with amplitudes tending to constant values, or it blows up at a finite slow time.

Generation of magnetic fields by large-scale vortices in rotating convection

We propose a self-consistent dynamo mechanism for the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in natural objects. Recent computational studies have described the formation of large-scale vortices in rotating turbulent convection. Here we demonstrate that for magnetic Reynolds numbers below the threshold for small-scale dynamo action, such turbulent flows can sustain large-scale magnetic fields, i.e., fields with a significant component on the scale of the system.

Generation of large-scale magnetic fields, non-Gaussianity, and primordial gravitational waves in inflationary cosmology

The generation of large-scale magnetic fields in inflationary cosmology is explored, in particular, in a kind of moduli inflation motivated by racetrack inflation in the context of the type IIB string theory. In this model, the conformal invariance of the hypercharge electromagnetic fields is broken thanks to the coupling of both the scalar and pseudoscalar fields to the hypercharge electromagnetic fields. The following three cosmological observable quantities are first evaluated: the current magnetic field strength on the Hubble horizon scale, which is much smaller than the upper limit from the backreaction problem, local non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbations due to the existence of the massive gauge fields, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. It is explicitly demonstrated that the resultant values of local non-Gaussianity and the tensor-to-scalar ratio are consistent with the Planck data.

MAGNETIC FIELD GENERATION IN CORE-SHEATH JETS VIA THE KINETIC KELVIN-HELMHOLTZ INSTABILITY

We have investigated magnetic field generation in velocity shears via the kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (kKHI) using a relativistic plasma jet core and stationary plasma sheath. Our three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations consider plasma jet cores with Lorentz factors of 1.5, 5, and 15 for both electron-proton and electron-positron plasmas. For electron-proton plasmas we find generation of strong large-scale DC currents and magnetic fields which extend over the entire shear-surface and reach thicknesses of a few tens of electron skin depths. For electron-positron plasmas we find generation of alternating currents and magnetic fields. Jet and sheath plasmas are accelerated across the shear surface in the strong magnetic fields generated by the kKHI. The mixing of jet and sheath plasmas generates transverse structure similar to that produced by the Weibel instability.

Electron-scale shear instabilities: magnetic field generation and particle acceleration in astrophysical jets

Strong shear flow regions found in astrophysical jets are shown to be important dissipation regions, where the shear flow kinetic energy flow is converted into electric and magnetic field energy via shear instabilities. The emergence of these self-consistent fields makes shear flows significant sites for radiation emission and particle acceleration. We focus on electron-scale instabilities, namely the collisionless, unmagnetized electron-scale Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (ESKHI) and a large-scale DC magnetic field generation mechanism on the electron scales. We show that these processes are important candidates to generate magnetic fields in the presence of strong velocity shears, which may naturally originate in energetic matter outbursts of active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursters. We show that the ESKHI is robust to density jumps between shearing flows, thus operating in various scenarios with different density contrasts. Multidimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of the ESKHI, performed with OSIRIS, reveal the emergence of a strong and large-scale DC magnetic field component, which is not captured by the standard linear fluid theory. This DC component arises from kinetic effects associated with the thermal expansion of electrons of one flow into the other across the shear layer, whilst ions remain unperturbed due to their inertia. The electron expansion forms DC current sheets, which induce a DC magnetic field. Our results indicate that most of the electromagnetic energy developed in the ESKHI is stored in the DC component, reaching values of equipartition on the order of in the electron time-scale, and persists longer than the proton time-scale. Particle scattering/acceleration in the self-generated fields of these shear flow instabilities is also analyzed.

Inflationary susceptibilities, duality, and large-scale magnetic field generation

We investigate what can be said about the interaction of scalar fields with Abelian gauge fields during a quasi-de Sitter phase of expansion and under the assumption that the electric and the magnetic susceptibilities do not coincide. The duality symmetry, transforming the magnetic susceptibility into the inverse of the electric susceptibility, exchanges the magnetic and electric power spectra. The mismatch between the two susceptibilities determines an effective refractive index affecting the evolution of the canonical fields. The constraints imposed by the duration of the inflationary phase and by the magnetogenesis requirements pin down the rate of variation of the susceptibilities that is consistent with the observations of the magnetic field strength over astrophysical and cosmological scales but avoids backreaction problems. The parameter space of this magnetogenesis scenario is wider than in the case in which the susceptibilities are equal, as it happens when the inflaton or some other spectator field is solely coupled to the standard gauge kinetic term.

On the problem of large-scale magnetic field generation in rotating compressible convection

AbstractMean-field dynamo theory suggests that turbulent convection in a rotating layer of electrically conducting fluid produces a significant$\alpha $-effect, which is one of the key ingredients in any mean-field dynamo model. Provided that this$\alpha $-effect operates more efficiently than (turbulent) magnetic diffusion, such a system should be capable of sustaining a large-scale dynamo. However, in the Boussinesq model that was considered by Cattaneo & Hughes (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 553, 2006, pp. 401–418) the dynamo produced small-scale, intermittent magnetic fields with no significant large-scale component. In this paper, we consider the compressible analogue of the rotating convective layer that was considered by Cattaneo & Hughes (2006). Varying the horizontal scale of the computational domain, we investigate the dependence of the dynamo upon the rotation rate. Our simulations indicate that these turbulent compressible flows can drive a small-scale dynamo but, even when the layer is rotating very rapidly (with a mid-layer Taylor number of$Ta= 1{0}^{8} $), we find no evidence for the generation of a significant large-scale component of the magnetic field on a dynamical time scale. Like Cattaneo & Hughes (2006), we measure a negligible (time-averaged)$\alpha $-effect when a uniform horizontal magnetic field is imposed across the computational domain. Although the total horizontal magnetic flux is a conserved quantity in these simulations, the (depth-dependent) horizontally averaged magnetic field always exhibits strong fluctuations. If these fluctuations are artificially suppressed within the code, we measure a significant mean electromotive force that is comparable to that found in related calculations in which the$\alpha $-effect is measured using the test-field method, even though we observe no large-scale dynamo action.

The effect of velocity shear on dynamo action due to rotating convection

AbstractRecent numerical simulations of dynamo action resulting from rotating convection have revealed some serious problems in applying the standard picture of mean field electrodynamics at high values of the magnetic Reynolds number, and have thereby underlined the difficulties in large-scale magnetic field generation in this regime. Here we consider kinematic dynamo processes in a rotating convective layer of Boussinesq fluid with the additional influence of a large-scale horizontal velocity shear. Incorporating the shear flow enhances the dynamo growth rate and also leads to the generation of significant magnetic fields on large scales. By the technique of spectral filtering, we analyse the modes in the velocity that are principally responsible for dynamo action, and show that the magnetic field resulting from the full flow relies crucially on a range of scales in the velocity field. Filtering the flow to provide a true separation of scales between the shear and the convective flow also leads to dynamo action; however, the magnetic field in this case has a very different structure from that generated by the full velocity field. We also show that the nature of the dynamo action is broadly similar irrespective of whether the flow in the absence of shear can support dynamo action.

Generation of large-scale magnetic fields from inflation in teleparallelism

We explore the generation of large-scale magnetic fields from inflation in teleparallelism, in which the gravitational theory is described by the torsion scalar instead of the scalar curvature in general relativity. In particular, we examine the case that the conformal invariance of the electromagnetic field during inflation is broken by a non-minimal gravitational coupling between the torsion scalar and the electromagnetic field. It is shown that for a power-law type coupling, the magnetic field on 1 Mpc scale with its strength of ∼ 10−9 G at the present time can be generated.