Dynamo action in shear flow turbulence

Axel Brandenburg
Nordita

Unlike isotropic turbulence, shear flow turbulence possess two new properties that are important for generating large scale magnetic fields. First, there is a new dynamo mechanism that works with shear and nonhelical turbulence alone. This new effect is different from the famous alpha effect. Second, a flux of magnetic helicity is driven through the domain and out through the boundaries. Simulations show that the toroidally averaged field can make up about 50 percent of the total magnetic energy, provided that magnetic helicity can leave the domain. Applications to the solar dynamo and to accretion disks are discussed.


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