Radially Dependent Large Scale Dynamos in Global Cylindrical Shear Flows and the Local Cartesian Limit

Abstract

For cylindrical differentially rotating plasmas, we study large-scale magnetic field generation from finite amplitude non-axisymmetric perturbations by comparing numerical simulations with quasi-linear analytic theory. When initiated with a vertical magnetic field of either zero or finite net flux, our global cylindrical simulations exhibit the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and large scale dynamo growth of radially alternating mean fields, averaged over height and azimuth. This dynamo growth is explained by our analytic calculations of a non-axisymmetric fluctuation-induced EMF that is sustained by azimuthal shear of the fluctuating fields. The standard "Omega effect" (shear of the mean field by differential rotation) is unimportant. For the MRI case, we express the large-scale dynamo field as a function of differential rotation. The resulting radially alternating large-scale fields may have implications for angular momentum transport in disks and corona. To connect with previous work on large scale dynamos with local linear shear and identify the minimum conditions needed for large scale field growth, we also solve our equations in local Cartesian coordinates. We find that large scale dynamo growth in a linear shear flow without rotation can be sustained by shear plus non-axisymmetric fluctuations -- even if not helical, a seemingly previously unidentified distinction. The linear shear flow dynamo emerges as a more restricted version of our more general new global cylindrical calculations.

10 pages, 6 figures (submitted to MNRAS)

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Evolution of the magnetorotational instability on initially tangled magnetic fields
• Onset of Plasmoid Reconnection during Magnetorotational Instability
• Sustained turbulence and magnetic energy in non-rotating shear flows
• Unified treatment of mean-field dynamo and angular-momentum transport in magnetorotational instability-driven turbulence
• MHD in a cylindrical shearing box II: Intermittent Bursts and Substructures in MRI Turbulence
• A generalized effective potential for differentially rotating plasmas
• Large-Scale Dynamos Driven by Shear-Flow-Induced Jets
• Turbulence and order in magnetized flowing plasmas