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Title: Quenching and anisotropy of hydromagnetic turbulent transport

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
;  [1]; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, SE-10691 Stockholm (Sweden)
  2. Department of Physics, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014 University of Helsinki (Finland)
  3. ReSoLVE Centre of Excellence, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto (Finland)

Hydromagnetic turbulence affects the evolution of large-scale magnetic fields through mean-field effects like turbulent diffusion and the α effect. For stronger fields, these effects are usually suppressed or quenched, and additional anisotropies are introduced. Using different variants of the test-field method, we determine the quenching of the turbulent transport coefficients for the forced Roberts flow, isotropically forced non-helical turbulence, and rotating thermal convection. We see significant quenching only when the mean magnetic field is larger than the equipartition value of the turbulence. Expressing the magnetic field in terms of the equipartition value of the quenched flows, we obtain for the quenching exponents of the turbulent magnetic diffusivity about 1.3, 1.1, and 1.3 for Roberts flow, forced turbulence, and convection, respectively. However, when the magnetic field is expressed in terms of the equipartition value of the unquenched flows, these quenching exponents become about 4, 1.5, and 2.3, respectively. For the α effect, the exponent is about 1.3 for the Roberts flow and 2 for convection in the first case, but 4 and 3, respectively, in the second. In convection, the quenching of turbulent pumping follows the same power law as turbulent diffusion, while for the coefficient describing the Ω×J effect nearly the same quenching exponent is obtained as for α. For forced turbulence, turbulent diffusion proportional to the second derivative along the mean magnetic field is quenched much less, especially for larger values of the magnetic Reynolds number. However, we find that in corresponding axisymmetric mean-field dynamos with dominant toroidal field the quenched diffusion coefficients are the same for the poloidal and toroidal field constituents.

OSTI ID:
22370326
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 795, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English