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arXiv · 0909.4632

Wave-driven dynamo action in spherical MHD systems

K. Reuter·F. Jenko·A. Tilgner·C. B. Forest
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Abstract

Hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic numerical studies of a mechanically forced two-vortex flow inside a sphere are reported. The simulations are performed in the intermediate regime between the laminar flow and developed turbulence where a hydrodynamic instability is found to generate internal waves with a characteristic m=2 zonal wave number. It is shown that this time-periodic flow acts as a dynamo although snapshots of the flow as well as the mean flow are not dynamos. The magnetic fields' growth rate exhibits resonance effects depending on the wave frequency. Furthermore, a cyclic self-killing and self-recovering dynamo based on the relative alignment of the velocity and magnetic fields is presented. The phenomena are explained in terms of a mixing of non-orthogonal eigenstates of the time dependent linear operator of the magnetic induction equation. The potential relevance of this mechanism to dynamo experiments is discussed.

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K. Reuter, F. Jenko, A. Tilgner, C. B. Forest. 2009-09-25. Wave-driven dynamo action in spherical MHD systems. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.80.056304

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