Dynamo action in a fully helical Beltrami (ABC) flow is studied using both direct numerical simulations and subgrid modeling. Sufficient scale separation is given in order to allow for large-scale magnetic energy build-up. Growth of magnetic energy obtains down to a magnetic Prandtl number PM=RM/RV close to 0.005, where RV and RM are the kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers. The critical magnetic Reynolds number for dynamo action RMc seems to saturate at values close to 20. Detailed studies of the dependence of the amplitude of the saturated magnetic energy with PM are presented. In order to decrease PM, numerical experiments are conducted with either RV or RM kept constant. In the former case, the ratio of magnetic to kinetic energy saturates to a value slightly below unity as PM decreases. Examination of energy spectra and structures in real space both reveal that quenching of the velocity by the large-scale magnetic field takes place, with an inverse cascade of magnetic helicity and a force-free field at large scale in the saturated regime.
A phenomenology of isotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence subject to both rotation and applied magnetic field is presented. It is assumed that the triple correlations decay-time is the shortest between the eddy turn-over time and the ones associated to the rotating frequency and Alfvén wave period. For $Pm=1$ it leads to four kinds of piecewise spectra, depending on the four parameters, injection rate of energy, magnetic diffusivity, rotation rate and applied field. With a shell model of MHD turbulence (including rotation and applied magnetic field), spectra for $Pm \le 1$ are presented, tog…
We investigate sustenance and dependence on magnetic Prandtl number (${\rm Pm}$) for magnetorotational instability (MRI)-driven turbulence in astrophysical Keplerian disks with zero net magnetic flux using standard shearing box simulations. We focus on the turbulence dynamics in Fourier space, capturing specific/noncanonical anisotropy of nonlinear processes due to disk flow shear. This is a new type of nonlinear redistribution of modes over wavevector orientations in Fourier space -- the nonlinear transverse cascade -- which is generic to shear flows and fundamentally different from usual dir…
The fully developed turbulent Boussinesq convection is known to form large-scale rolls, often termed the 'large-scale circulation' (LSC). It is an interesting question how such a large-scale flow is created, in particular in systems when the energy input occurs at small scales, when inverse cascade is required in order to transfer energy into the large-scale modes. Here, the small-scale driving is introduced through stochastic, randomly distributed heat source (say radiational). The mean flow equations are derived by means of simplified renormalization group technique, which can be termed 'wea…
We present an MHD shell model suitable for computation of various energy fluxes of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence for very small and very large magnetic Prandtl numbers $\mathrm{Pm}$; such computations are inaccessible to direct numerical simulations. For small $\mathrm{Pm}$, we observe that both kinetic and magnetic energy spectra scale as $k^{-5/3}$ in the inertial range, but the dissipative magnetic energy scales as $k^{-11/3}\exp(-k/k_η)$. Here, the kinetic energy at large length scale feeds the large-scale magnetic field that cascades to small-scale magnetic field, which gets dissipated b…
Turbulent viscosity $ν_t$ and resistivity $η_t$ are perhaps the simplest models for turbulent transport of angular momentum and magnetic fields, respectively. The associated turbulent magnetic Prandtl number $Pr_t\equiv ν_t/η_t$ has been well recognized to determine the final magnetic configuration of accretion disks. Here, we present an approach to determining these ''effective transport'' coefficients acting at different length-scales using coarse-graining and recent results on decoupled kinetic and magnetic energy cascades [Bian & Aluie 2019]. By analyzing the kinetic and magnetic energy ca…
The well known mean-field model of a turbulence driven dynamo is reviewed in relation to Laboratory experiments in which a turbulent cascade is created by a pair of large rotors. It is argued that in such experiments the alpha-effect, driving a dynamo field, will be much less than the dissipative beta-effect. Consequently a mean field dynamo cannot be sustained. This conclusion is supported by recent measurements of the alpha and beta effects in the Madison Dynamo Experiment.
We calculate the mean electromotive force in plane Couette flows of a nonrotating conducting fluid under the influence of a large-scale magnetic field for driven turbulence. A vertical stratification of the turbulence intensity results in an alpha effect owing to the presence of horizontal shear. Here we discuss the possibility of an experimental determination of the components of the alpha tensor using both quasilinear theory and nonlinear numerical simulations. For magnetic Prandtl numbers of the order of unity, we find that in the high-conductivity limit the alpha effect in the direction of…
We analyze the initial, kinematic stage of magnetic field evolution in an isotropic and homogeneous turbulent conducting fluid with a rough velocity field, v(l) ~ l^alpha, alpha<1. We propose that in the limit of small magnetic Prandtl number, i.e. when ohmic resistivity is much larger than viscosity, the smaller the roughness exponent, alpha, the larger the magnetic Reynolds number that is needed to excite magnetic fluctuations. This implies that numerical or experimental investigations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with small Prandtl numbers need to achieve extremely high resolution in o…
Magnetic and kinetic energy in ideal incompressible MHD are not global invariants and, therefore, it had been justified to discuss only the cascade of their sum, total energy. We provide a physical argument based on scale-locality of the cascade, along with compelling evidence that at high Reynolds numbers, magnetic and kinetic energy budgets statistically decouple beyond a transitional "conversion" range. This arises because magnetic field-line stretching is a large-scale process which vanishes on average at intermediate and small scales within the inertial-inductive range, thereby allowing e…
We study the linear stability of the flow of a viscous electrically conducting capillary fluid on a planar fixed plate in the presence of gravity and a uniform magnetic field. We first confirm that the Squire transformation for MHD is compatible with the stress and insulating boundary conditions at the free surface, but argue that unless the flow is driven at fixed Galilei and capillary numbers, the critical mode is not necessarily two-dimensional. We then investigate numerically how a flow-normal magnetic field, and the associated Hartmann steady state, affect the soft and hard instability mo…
Most large-scale planetary magnetic fields are thought to be driven by low Rossby number convection of a low magnetic Prandtl number fluid. Here kinematic dynamo action is investigated with an asymptotic, rapidly rotating dynamo model for the plane layer geometry that is intrinsically low magnetic Prandtl number. The thermal Prandtl number and Rayleigh number are varied to illustrate fundamental changes in flow regime, ranging from laminar cellular convection to geostrophic turbulence in which an inverse energy cascade is present. A decrease in the efficiency of the convection to generate a dy…
Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection is investigated numerically with the use of an asymptotic model that captures the rapidly rotating, small Ekman number limit, $Ek \rightarrow 0$. The Prandtl number ($Pr$) and the asymptotically scaled Rayleigh number ($\widetilde{Ra} = Ra Ek^{4/3}$, where $Ra$ is the typical Rayleigh number) are varied systematically. For sufficiently vigorous convection, an inverse kinetic energy cascade leads to the formation of a depth-invariant large-scale vortex (LSV). With respect to the kinetic energy, we find a transition from convection dominated states to LSV domi…
The Tayler instability is a kink-type, current driven instability that plays an important role in plasma physics but might also be relevant in liquid metal applications with high electrical currents. In the framework of the Tayler-Spruit dynamo model of stellar magnetic field generation, the question of spontaneous helical (chiral) symmetry breaking during the saturation of the Tayler instability has received considerable interest. Focusing on fluids with low magnetic Prandtl numbers, for which the quasistatic approximation can be applied, we utilize an integro-differential equation approach i…
We present direct numerical simulations and alpha-model simulations of four familiar three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence effects: selective decay, dynamic alignment, inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, and the helical dynamo effect. The MHD alpha-model is shown to capture the long-wavelength spectra in all these problems, allowing for a significant reduction of computer time and memory at the same kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers. In the helical dynamo, not only does the alpha-model correctly reproduce the growth rate of magnetic energy during the kinematic regime, bu…
We explore some consequences of the ``alpha model,'' also called the ``Lagrangian-averaged'' model, for two-dimensional incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. This model is an extension of the smoothing procedure in fluid dynamics which filters velocity fields locally while leaving their associated vorticities unsmoothed, and has proved useful for high Reynolds number turbulence computations. We consider several known effects (selective decay, dynamic alignment, inverse cascades, and the probability distribution functions of fluctuating turbulent quantities) in magnetofluid turbu…
In this paper, we present an overview of concepts and data concerning inverse cascades of excitation towards scales larger than the forcing scale in a variety of contexts, from two-dimensional fluids and wave turbulence, to geophysical flows in the presence of rotation and stratification. We briefly discuss the role of anisotropy in the occurrence and properties of such cascades. We then show that the cascade of some invariant, for example the total energy, may be transferred through nonlinear interactions to both the small scales and the large scales, with in each case a constant flux. This i…
We study the transfer of energy between different scales for forced three-dimensional MHD turbulent flows in the kinematic dynamo regime. Two different forces are examined: a non-helical Taylor Green flow with magnetic Prandtl number P_M=0.4, and a helical ABC flow with P_M=1. This analysis allows us to examine which scales of the velocity flow are responsible for dynamo action, and identify which scales of the magnetic field receive energy directly from the velocity field and which scales receive magnetic energy through the cascade of the magnetic field from large to small scales. Our results…
We investigate the impact of a solid-body rotation $Ω_0$ on the large-scale dynamics of an incompressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulent flow in presence of a background magnetic field $\bf B_0$ and at low Rossby number. Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations are performed in a periodic box, at unit magnetic Prandtl number and with a forcing at intermediate wavenumber $k_f=20$. When $Ω_0$ is aligned with $\bf B_0$ (i.e. $θ\equiv \widehat{\left(Ω_{0}, \bf B_0 \right)} = 0$), inverse transfer is found for the magnetic spectrum at $k<k_f$. This transfer is stronger when the forcing excites…
We present an extension of the Karman-Howarth theorem to the Lagrangian averaged magnetohydrodynamic (LAMHD-alpha) equations. The scaling laws resulting as a corollary of this theorem are studied in numerical simulations, as well as the scaling of the longitudinal structure function exponents indicative of intermittency. Numerical simulations for a magnetic Prandtl number equal to unity are presented both for freely decaying and for forced two dimensional MHD turbulence, solving directly the MHD equations, and employing the LAMHD-alpha equations at 1/2 and 1/4 resolution. Linear scaling of the…
The presence of large scale magnetic fields in nature is often attributed to the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity driven by turbulent helical dynamos. In this work we show that in turbulent helical dynamos, the inverse flux of magnetic helicity towards the large scales $Π_{\mathcal{H}}$ is bounded by $|Π_{\mathcal{H}}|\le c εk_η^{-1}$, where $ε$ is the energy injection rate, $k_η$ is the Kolmogorov magnetic dissipation wavenumber and $c$ an order one constant. Assuming the classical isotropic turbulence scaling, the inverse flux of magnetic helicity $Π_{\mathcal{H}}$ decreases at least as …
For wavenumbers k such that k * alpha > 1, corresponding to spatial scales smaller than alpha, there are three candidate power laws for the energy spectrum of the Navier-Stokes-alpha model, corresponding to three possible dynamical eddy turnover time scales in the model equations: one from the smoothed field, the second from the rough field and the third from a special combination of the two. Using two-dimensional turbulence as a test case, we measure the scaling of the spectra from high-resolution simulations of the Navier-Stokes-alpha model, in the limit as alpha goes to infinity. We show th…
We compute solutions of the Lagrangian-Averaged Navier-Stokes alpha-model (LANS) for significantly higher Reynolds numbers (up to Re 8300) than have previously been accomplished. This allows sufficient separation of scales to observe a Navier-Stokes (NS) inertial range followed by a 2nd LANS inertial range. The analysis of the third-order structure function scaling supports the predicted l^3 scaling; it corresponds to a k^(-1) scaling of the energy spectrum. The energy spectrum itself shows a different scaling which goes as k^1. This latter spectrum is consistent with the absence of stretching…
Motivated by the empirical finding that the known hemispheric rules for the current helicity at the solar surface are not strict, the excitation of small-scale current helicity by the influence of a large-scale helical magnetic background fields on nonrotating magnetoconvection is demonstrated. It is shown within a quasilinear analytic theory of driven turbulence and by nonlinear simulations of magnetoconvection that the resulting small-scale current helicity has the same sign as the large-scale current helicity while the ratio of both pseudo-scalars is of the order of the magnetic Reynolds nu…
Accounting for the Reynolds number is critical in numerical simulations of turbulence, particularly for subsonic flow. For Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) with constant artificial viscosity coefficient alpha, it is shown that the effective Reynolds number in the absence of explicit physical viscosity terms scales linearly with the Mach number - compared to mesh schemes, where the effective Reynolds number is largely independent of the flow velocity. As a result, SPH simulations with alpha=1 will have low Reynolds numbers in the subsonic regime compared to mesh codes, which may be insuffi…
Turbulent motions are essential to the mixing of entrained fluids and are also capable of amplifying weak initial magnetic fields by small-scale dynamo action. Here we perform a systematic study of turbulent mixing in magnetized media, using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations that include a scalar concentration field. We focus on how mixing depends on the magnetic Prandtl number, Pm, from 1 to 4 and the Mach number, M}, from 0.3 to 2.4. For all subsonic flows, we find that the velocity power spectrum has a k^-5/3 slope in the early, kinematic phase, but steepens due to magnetic …
Magnetorotational dynamo action in Keplerian shear flow is a three-dimensional, nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic process whose study is relevant to the understanding of accretion and magnetic field generation in astrophysics. Transition to this form of dynamo is subcritical and shares many characteristics of transition to turbulence in non-rotating hydrodynamic shear flows. This suggests that these different fluid systems become active through similar generic bifurcation mechanisms, which in both cases have eluded detailed understanding so far. In this paper, we investigate numerically the bifurc…
