Energy transfers and magnetic energy growth in small-scale dynamo

Abstract

In this letter we investigate the dynamics of magnetic energy growth in small-scale dynamo by studying energy transfers, mainly energy fluxes and shell-to-shell energy transfers. We perform dynamo simulations for magnetic Prandtl number $\mathrm{Pm}=20$ on $1024^3$ grid using pseudospectral method. We demonstrate that the magnetic energy growth is caused by nonlocal energy transfers from the large-scale or forcing-scale velocity field to small-scale magnetic field. The peak of these energy transfers move towards lower wavenumbers as dynamo evolves, which is the reason why the integral scale of the magnetic field increases with time. The energy transfers $U2U$ (velocity to velocity) and $B2B$ (magnetic to magnetic) are forward and local.

6 pages, 8 figures

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• Dynamo transition in a five-mode helical model