Alpha effect

Abstract: Using numerical simulations at moderate magnetic Reynolds numbers up to 220 it is shown that in the kinematic regime, isotropic helical turbulence leads to an alpha effect and a turbulent diffusivity whose values are independent of the magnetic Reynolds number, $\Rm$, provided $\Rm$ exceeds unity. These turbulent coefficients are also consistent with expectations from the first order smoothing approximation. For small values of $\Rm$, alpha and turbulent diffusivity are proportional to $\Rm$. Over finite time intervals meaningful values of alpha and turbulent diffusivity can be obtained even when there is small-scale dynamo action that produces strong magnetic fluctuations. This suggests that small-scale dynamo-generated fields do not make a correlated contribution to the mean electromotive force.

Abstract: The effect of a dynamo-generated mean magnetic field of Beltrami type on the mean electromotive force is studied. In the absence of the mean magnetic field the turbulence is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic, but it becomes inhomogeneous and anisotropic with this field. Using the testfield method the dependence of the alpha and turbulent diffusivity tensors on the magnetic Reynolds number Rm is determined for magnetic fields that have reached approximate equipartition with the velocity field. The tensor components are characterized by a pseudoscalar alpha and a scalar turbulent magnetic diffusivity etat. Increasing Rm from 2 to 600 reduces etat by a factor ~5, suggesting that the quenching of etat is, in contrast to the 2-dimensional case, only weakly dependent on Rm. Over the same range of Rm, however, alpha is reduced by a factor ~14, which can qualitatively be explained by a corresponding increase of a magnetic contribution to the alpha effect with opposite sign. The level of fluctuations of alpha and etat is only 10% and 20% of the respective kinematic reference values.

Abstract: We perform numerical experiments to calculate the kinematic {alpha} effect for a family of maximally helical, chaotic flows with a range of correlation times. We find that the value of {alpha} depends on the structure of the flow, on its correlation time and on the magnetic Reynolds number in a nontrivial way. Furthermore, it seems that there is no clear relation between {alpha} and the helicity of the flow, contrary to what is often assumed for the parametrization of mean-field dynamo models.