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arXiv · 1109.4644

Universal Nonlinear Small-Scale Dynamo

Andrey Beresnyak
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Abstract

We consider astrophysically relevant nonlinear MHD dynamo at large Reynolds numbers (Re). We argue that it is universal in a sense that magnetic energy grows at a rate which is a constant fraction C_E of the total turbulent dissipation rate. On the basis of locality bounds we claim that this "efficiency of small-scale dynamo", C_E, is a true constant for large Re and is determined only by strongly nonlinear dynamics at the equipartition scale. We measured C_E in numerical simulations and observed a value around 0.05 in highest resolution simulations. We address the issue of C_E being small, unlike Kolmogorov constant which is of order unity.

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Andrey Beresnyak. 2011-09-21. Universal Nonlinear Small-Scale Dynamo. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.108.035002

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