Nordita Astrophysics Seminars

Scaling and intermittency in incoherent alpha-shear dynamo

by Dhrubaditya Mitra

Europe/Stockholm
122:026

122:026

Description
We consider mean-field dynamo models with fluctuating alpha effect, both with and without shear. The alpha effect is chosen to be Gaussian white noise with zero mean and given covariance. We show analytically that the mean magnetic field does not grow, but, in an infinitely large domain, the mean-squared magnetic field shows exponential growth of the fastest growing mode at a rate proportional to the shear rate. In the absence of shear, an incoherent alpha^2 dynamo may also be possible. We further show by explicit calculation of the growth rate of third and fourth order moments of the magnetic field that the probability density function of the mean magnetic field generated by this dynamo is non-Gaussian.

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