Nonhelical mean-field dynamos in a sheared turbulence

Abstract

Mechanisms of nonhelical large-scale dynamos (shear-current dynamo and effect of homogeneous kinetic helicity fluctuations with zero mean) in a homogeneous turbulence with large-scale shear are discussed. We have found that the shear-current dynamo can act even in random flows with small Reynolds numbers. However, in this case mean-field dynamo requires small magnetic Prandtl numbers (i.e., $\mathrm{Pm}<{\mathrm{Pm}}^{\mathrm{cr}}<1$). The threshold in the magnetic Prandtl number, ${\mathrm{Pm}}^{\mathrm{cr}}=0.24$, is determined using second order correlation approximation (or first-order smoothing approximation) for a background random flow with a scale-dependent viscous correlation time ${\tau }_c=(\nu k^2{)}^{-1}$ (where $\nu$ is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid and $k$ is the wave number). For turbulent flows with large Reynolds numbers shear-current dynamo occurs for arbitrary magnetic Prandtl numbers. This dynamo effect represents a very generic mechanism for generating large-scale magnetic fields in a broad class of astrophysical turbulent systems with large-scale shear. On the other hand, mean-field dynamo due to homogeneous kinetic helicity fluctuations alone in a sheared turbulence is not realistic for a broad class of astrophysical systems because it requires a very specific random forcing of kinetic helicity fluctuations that contains, e.g., low-frequency oscillations.

5 pages, Astronomische Nachrichten, in press

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