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In this study, we present a compressible test-field method (CTFM) for computing α- effect and turbulent magnetic diffusivity tensors, as well as those relevant for the mean ponderomotive force and mass source, applied to the full MHD equations. We describe the theoretical background of the method and compare it to the quasi-kinematic test-field method and to the previously studied variant working in simplified MHD (SMHD). We present several test cases using velocity and magnetic fields of the Roberts geometry and also compare with the imposed-field method. We show that, for moderate imposed-field strengths, the nonlinear CTFM (nCTFM) gives results in agreement with the imposed-field method. A comparison of different flavors of the nCTFM in the shear dynamo case also yields agreement up to equipartition field strengths. Some deviations between the CTFM and SMHD variants exist. As a relevant physical application, we study nonhelically forced shear flows, which exhibit large-scale dynamo action, and present a reanalysis of low-Reynolds-number, moderate shear systems, where we previously ignored the pressure gradient in the momentum equation and found no coherent shear-current effect. Another key difference is that in the earlier study we used magnetic forcing to mimic small-scale dynamo action, while here it is self-consistently driven by purely kinetic forcing. The kinematic CTFM with general validity forms the core of our analysis. We still find no coherent shear-current effect, but do recover strong large-scale dynamo action that, according to our analysis, is driven by incoherent effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relic gravitational waves (GWs) can be produced by primordial magnetic fields. However, not much is known about the resulting GW amplitudes and their dependence on the details of the generation mechanism. Here we treat magnetic field generation through the chiral magnetic effect (CME) as a generic mechanism and explore its dependence on the speed of generation (the product of magnetic diffusivity and characteristic wavenumber) and the speed characterizing the maximum magnetic field strength expected from the CME. When the latter exceeds the former (regime I), which is the regime applicable to the early universe, we obtain an inverse cascade with moderate GW energy that scales with the third power of the magnetic energy. When the generation speed exceeds the CME limit (regime II), the GW energy continues to increase without a corresponding increase of magnetic energy. In the early kinematic phase, the GW energy spectrum (per linear wavenumber interval) has opposite slopes in both regimes and is characterized by an inertial range spectrum in regime I and a white noise spectrum in regime II. The occurrence of these two slopes is shown to be a generic consequence of a nearly monochromatic exponential growth of the magnetic field. The resulting GW energy is found to be proportional to the fifth power of the limiting CME speed and the first power of the generation speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility of explaining shear flow dynamos by a magnetic shear-current (MSC) effect is examined via numerical simulations. Our primary diagnostics is the determination of the turbulent magnetic diffusivity tensor η. In our setup, a negative sign of its component ηyx is necessary for coherent dynamo action by the SC effect. To be able to measure turbulent transport coefficients from systems with magnetic background turbulence, we present an extension of the test-field method (TFM) applicable to our setup where the pressure gradient is dropped from the momentum equation: the nonlinear TFM (NLTFM). Our momentum equation is related to Burgers' equation and the resulting flows are referred to as magnetized burgulence. We use both stochastic kinetic and magnetic forcings to mimic cases without and with simultaneous small-scale dynamo action. When we force only kinetically, negative ηyx are obtained with exponential growth in both the radial and azimuthal mean magnetic field components. Using magnetokinetic forcing, the field growth is no longer exponential, while NLTFM yields positive ηyx. By employing an alternative forcing from which wavevectors whose components correspond to the largest scales are removed, the exponential growth is recovered, but the NLTFM results do not change significantly. Analyzing the dynamo excitation conditions for the coherent SC and incoherent α and SC effects shows that the incoherent effects are the main drivers of the dynamo in the majority of cases. We find no evidence for MSC-effect-driven dynamos in our simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ohmic decay of magnetic fields in the crusts of neutron stars is generally believed to be governed by Hall drift, which leads to what is known as a Hall cascade. Here we show that helical and fractionally helical magnetic fields undergo strong inverse cascading like in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), but the magnetic energy decays more slowly with time t: instead of ∝t−2/3 in MHD. Even for a nonhelical magnetic field there is a certain degree of inverse cascading for sufficiently strong magnetic fields. The inertial range scaling with wavenumber k is compatible with earlier findings for the forced Hall cascade, i.e., proportional to k−7/3, but in the decaying cases, the subinertial range spectrum steepens to a novel k5 slope instead of the k4 slope in MHD. The energy of the large-scale magnetic field can increase quadratically in time through inverse cascading. For helical fields, the energy dissipation is found to be inversely proportional to the large-scale magnetic field and proportional to the fifth power of the rms magnetic field. For neutron star conditions with an rms magnetic field of a few times , the large-scale magnetic field might only be , while still producing magnetic dissipation of for thousands of years, which could manifest itself through X-ray emission. Finally, it is shown that the conclusions from local unstratified models agree rather well with those from stratified models with boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A handedness in the arrival directions of high-energy photons from outside our Galaxy can be related to the helicity of an intergalactic magnetic field. Previous estimates by Tashiro et al. and Chen et al. showed a hint of a signal present in the photons observed by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). An update on the measurement of handedness in Fermi-LAT data is presented using more than 10 yr of observations. Simulations are performed to study the uncertainty of the measurements, taking into account the structure of the exposure caused by the energy-dependent instrument response and its observing profile, as well as the background from the interstellar medium. The simulations are required to accurately estimate the uncertainty and to show that previously the uncertainty was significantly underestimated. The apparent signal in the earlier analysis of Fermi-LAT data is rendered nonsignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using one-dimensional models, we show that a helical magnetic field with an appropriate sign of helicity can compensate the Faraday depolarization resulting from the superposition of Faraday-rotated polarization planes from a spatially extended source. For radio emission from a helical magnetic field, the polarization as a function of the square of the wavelength becomes asymmetric with respect to zero. Mathematically speaking, the resulting emission occurs then either at observable or at unobservable (imaginary) wavelengths. We demonstrate that rotation measure (RM) synthesis allows for the reconstruction of the underlying Faraday dispersion function in the former case, but not in the latter. The presence of positive magnetic helicity can thus be detected by observing positive RM in highly polarized regions in the sky and negative RM in weakly polarized regions. Conversely, negative magnetic helicity can be detected by observing negative RM in highly polarized regions and positive RM in weakly polarized regions. The simultaneous presence of two magnetic constituents with opposite signs of helicity is shown to possess signatures that can be quantified through polarization peaks at specific wavelengths and the gradient of the phase of the Faraday dispersion function. Similar polarization peaks can tentatively also be identified for the bi-helical magnetic fields that are generated self-consistently by a dynamo from helically forced turbulence, even though the magnetic energy spectrum is then continuous. Finally, we discuss the possibility of detecting magnetic fields with helical and non-helical properties in external galaxies using the Square Kilometre Array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of four convective dynamo simulations with an outer coronal layer. The magnetic field is self-consistently generated by the convective motions beneath the surface. Above the convection zone, we include a polytropic layer that extends to 1.6 solar radii. The temperature increases in this region to ≈8 times the value at the surface, corresponding to ≈1.2 times the value at the bottom of the spherical shell. We associate this region with the solar corona. We find solar-like differential rotation with radial contours of constant rotation rate, together with a near-surface shear layer. This non-cylindrical rotation profile is caused by a non-zero latitudinal entropy gradient that offsets the Taylor-Proudman balance through the baroclinic term. The meridional circulation is multi-cellular with a solar-like poleward flow near the surface at low latitudes. In most of the cases, the mean magnetic field is oscillatory with equatorward migration in two cases. In other cases, the equatorward migration is overlaid by stationary or even poleward migrating mean fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present results from simulations of rotating magnetized turbulent convection in spherical wedge geometry representing parts of the latitudinal and longitudinal extents of a star. Here we consider a set of runs for which the density stratification is varied, keeping the Reynolds and Coriolis numbers at similar values. In the case of weak stratification, we find quasi-steady dynamo solutions for moderate rotation and oscillatory ones with poleward migration of activity belts for more rapid rotation. For stronger stratification, the growth rate tends to become smaller. Furthermore, a transition from quasi-steady to oscillatory dynamos is found as the Coriolis number is increased, but now there is an equatorward migrating branch near the equator. The breakpoint where this happens corresponds to a rotation rate that is about three to seven times the solar value. The phase relation of the magnetic field is such that the toroidal field lags behind the radial field by about π/2, which can be explained by an oscillatory α2 dynamo caused by the sign change of the α-effect about the equator. We test the domain size dependence of our results for a rapidly rotating run with equatorward migration by varying the longitudinal extent of our wedge. The energy of the axisymmetric mean magnetic field decreases as the domain size increases and we find that an m = 1 mode is excited for a full 2π azimuthal extent, reminiscent of the field configurations deduced from observations of rapidly rotating late-type stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a test bed for the growth of protoplanetary bodies in a turbulent circumstellar disk, we examine the fate of a boulder using direct numerical simulations of particle seeded gas flowing around it. We provide an accurate description of the flow by imposing no-slip and non-penetrating boundary conditions on the boulder surface using the immersed boundary method pioneered by Peskin. Advected by the turbulent disk flow, the dust grains collide with the boulder and we compute the probability density function of the normal component of the collisional velocity. Through this examination of the statistics of collisional velocities, we test the recently developed concept of collisional fusion which provides a physical basis for a range of collisional velocities exhibiting perfect sticking. A boulder can then grow sufficiently rapidly to settle into a Keplerian orbit on disk evolution timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the basic mechanism of the formation of magnetic flux concentrations, we determine by direct numerical simulations the turbulence contributions to the mean magnetic pressure in a strongly stratified isothermal layer with large plasma beta, where a weak uniform horizontal mean magnetic field is applied. The negative contribution of turbulence to the effective mean magnetic pressure is determined for strongly stratified forced turbulence over a range of values of magnetic Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. Small-scale dynamo action is shown to reduce the negative effect of turbulence on the effective mean magnetic pressure. However, the turbulence coefficients describing the negative effective magnetic pressure phenomenon are found to converge for magnetic Reynolds numbers between 60 and 600, which is the largest value considered here. In all these models, the turbulent intensity is arranged to be nearly independent of height, so the kinetic energy density decreases with height due to the decrease in density. In a second series of numerical experiments, the turbulent intensity increases with height such that the turbulent kinetic energy density is nearly independent of height. Turbulent magnetic diffusivity and turbulent pumping velocity are determined with the test-field method for both cases. The vertical profile of the turbulent magnetic diffusivity is found to agree with what is expected based on simple mixing length expressions. Turbulent pumping is shown to be down the gradient of turbulent magnetic diffusivity, but it is twice as large as expected. Corresponding numerical mean-field models are used to show that a large-scale instability can occur in both cases, provided the degree of scale separation is large enough and hence the turbulent magnetic diffusivity small enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saturated small-scale dynamo solutions driven by isotropic non-helical turbulence are presented at low magnetic Prandtl numbers PrM down to 0.01. For PrM < 0.1, most of the energy is dissipated via Joule heat and, in agreement with earlier results for helical large-scale dynamos, kinetic energy dissipation is shown to diminish proportional to Due to image rights restrictions, multiple line equation(s) cannot be graphically displayed. down to values of 0.1. In agreement with earlier work, there is, in addition to a short Golitsyn k-11/3 spectrum near the resistive scale, also some evidence for a short k-1 spectrum on larger scales. The rms magnetic field strength of the small-scale dynamo is found to depend only weakly on the value of PrM and decreases by about a factor of two as PrM is decreased from 1 to 0.01. The possibility of dynamo action at PrM = 0.1 in the nonlinear regime is argued to be a consequence of a suppression of the bottleneck seen in the kinetic energy spectrum in the absence of a dynamo and, more generally, a suppression of kinetic energy near the dissipation wavenumber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large-scale dynamics of plasmas is well described within the framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). However, whenever the ion density of the plasma becomes sufficiently low, the Hall effect is likely to become important. The role of the Hall effect has been studied in several astrophysical plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection, magnetic dynamo, MHD turbulence, or MHD instabilities. In particular, the development of smallscale instabilities is essential to understand the transport properties in a number of astrophysical plasmas. The magneto-rotational instability (MRI), which takes place in differentially rotating accretion disks embedded in relatively weak magnetic fields, is just one example. The influence of the large-scale velocity flows on small-scale instabilities is often approximated by a linear shear flow. In this paper, we quantitatively study the role of the Hall effect on plasmas embedded in large-scale shear flows. More precisely, we show that an instability develops when the Hall effect is present, which we therefore term as the Hall magneto-shear instability. As a particular case, we recover the so-called MRI and quantitatively assess the role of the Hall effect on its development and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We determine the magnetic helicity, along with the magnetic energy, at high latitudes using data from the Ulysses mission. The data set spans the time period from 1993 to 1996. The basic assumption of the analysis is that the solar wind is homogeneous. Because the solar wind speed is high, we follow the approach first pioneered by Matthaeus et al. by which, under the assumption of spatial homogeneity, one can use Fourier transforms of the magnetic field time series to construct one-dimensional spectra of the magnetic energy and magnetic helicity under the assumption that the Taylor frozen-in-flow hypothesis is valid. That is a well-satisfied assumption for the data used in this study. The magnetic helicity derives from the skew-symmetric terms of the three-dimensional magnetic correlation tensor, while the symmetric terms of the tensor are used to determine the magnetic energy spectrum. Our results show a sign change of magnetic helicity at wavenumber k ≈ 2 AU-1 (or frequency v ≈ 2 μHz) at distances below 2.8 AU and at k ≈ 30 AU-1 (or v ≈ 25 μHz) at larger distances. At small scales the magnetic helicity is positive at northern heliographic latitudes and negative at southern latitudes. The positive magnetic helicity at small scales is argued to be the result of turbulent diffusion reversing the sign relative to what is seen at small scales at the solar surface. Furthermore, the magnetic helicity declines toward solar minimum in 1996. The magnetic helicity flux integrated separately over one hemisphere amounts to about 1045 Mx2 cycle-1 at large scales and to a three times lower value at smaller scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydromagnetic turbulence affects the evolution of large-scale magnetic fields through mean-field effects like turbulent diffusion and the α effect. For stronger fields, these effects are usually suppressed or quenched, and additional anisotropies are introduced. Using different variants of the test-field method, we determine the quenching of the turbulent transport coefficients for the forced Roberts flow, isotropically forced non-helical turbulence, and rotating thermal convection. We see significant quenching only when the mean magnetic field is larger than the equipartition value of the turbulence. Expressing the magnetic field in terms of the equipartition value of the quenched flows, we obtain for the quenching exponents of the turbulent magnetic diffusivity about 1.3, 1.1, and 1.3 for Roberts flow, forced turbulence, and convection, respectively. However, when the magnetic field is expressed in terms of the equipartition value of the unquenched flows, these quenching exponents become about 4, 1.5, and 2.3, respectively. For the α effect, the exponent is about 1.3 for the Roberts flow and 2 for convection in the first case, but 4 and 3, respectively, in the second. In convection, the quenching of turbulent pumping follows the same power law as turbulent diffusion, while for the coefficient describing the effect nearly the same quenching exponent is obtained as for α. For forced turbulence, turbulent diffusion proportional to the second derivative along the mean magnetic field is quenched much less, especially for larger values of the magnetic Reynolds number. However, we find that in corresponding axisymmetric mean-field dynamos with dominant toroidal field the quenched diffusion coefficients are the same for the poloidal and toroidal field constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional hydromagnetic turbulence, either with helical or non-helical forcing, we show that the kinetic-to-magnetic energy dissipation ratio always increases with the magnetic Prandtl number, i.e., the ratio of kinematic viscosity to magnetic diffusivity. This dependence can always be approximated by a power law, but the exponent is not the same in all cases. For non-helical turbulence, the exponent is around 1/3, while for helical turbulence it is between 0.6 and 2/3. In the statistically steady state, the rate of energy conversion from kinetic into magnetic by the dynamo must be equal to the Joule dissipation rate. We emphasize that for both small-scale and large-scale dynamos, the efficiency of the energy conversion depends sensitively on the magnetic Prandtl number, and thus on the microphysical dissipation process. To understand this behavior, we also study shell models of turbulence and one-dimensional passive and active scalar models. We conclude that the magnetic Prandtl number dependence is qualitatively best reproduced in the one-dimensional model as a result of dissipation via localized Alfvén kinks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of QCD phase transition-generated magnetic fields (MFs) in freely decaying MHD turbulence of the expanding universe. We consider an MF generation model that starts from basic non-perturbative QCD theory and predicts stochastic MFs with an amplitude of the order of 0.02 μG and small magnetic helicity. We employ direct numerical simulations to model the MHD turbulence decay and identify two different regimes: a “weakly helical” turbulence regime, when magnetic helicity increases during decay, and “fully helical” turbulence, when maximal magnetic helicity is reached and an inverse cascade develops. The results of our analysis show that in the most optimistic scenario the magnetic correlation length in the comoving frame can reach 10 kpc with the amplitude of the effective MF being 0.007 nG. We demonstrate that the considered model of magnetogenesis can provide the seed MF for galaxies and clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that an α effect is driven by the cosmic-ray (CR) Bell instability exciting left-right asymmetric turbulence. Alfvén waves of a preferred polarization have maximally helical motion, because the transverse motion of each mode is parallel to its curl. We show how large-scale Alfvén modes, when rendered unstable by CR streaming, can create new net flux over any finite region, in the direction of the original large-scale field. We perform direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of a magnetohydrodynamic fluid with a forced CR current and use the test-field method to determine the α effect and the turbulent magnetic diffusivity. As follows from DNS, the dynamics of the instability has the following stages: (1) in the early stage, the small-scale Bell instability that results in the production of small-scale turbulence is excited; (2) in the intermediate stage, there is formation of larger-scale magnetic structures; (3) finally, quasi-stationary large-scale turbulence is formed at a growth rate that is comparable to that expected from the dynamo instability, but its amplitude over much longer timescales remains unclear. The results of DNS are in good agreement with the theoretical estimates. It is suggested that this dynamo is what gives weakly magnetized relativistic shocks such as those from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) a macroscopic correlation length. It may also be important for large-scale magnetic field amplification associated with CR production and diffusive shock acceleration in supernova remnants (SNRs) and blast waves from GRBs. Magnetic field amplification by Bell turbulence in SNRs is found to be significant, but it is limited owing to the finite time available to the super-Alfvénicly expanding remnant. The effectiveness of the mechanisms is shown to be dependent on the shock velocity. Limits on magnetic field growth in longer-lived systems, such as the Galaxy and unconfined intergalactic CRs, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At large magnetic Reynolds numbers, magnetic helicity evolution plays an important role in astrophysical large-scale dynamos. The recognition of this fact led to the development of the dynamical α quenching formalism, which predicts catastrophically low mean fields in open systems. Here, we show that in oscillatory αΩ dynamos this formalism predicts an unphysical magnetic helicity transfer between scales. An alternative technique is proposed where this artifact is removed by using the evolution equation for the magnetic helicity of the total field in the shearing advective gauge. In the traditional dynamical α quenching formalism, this can be described by an additional magnetic helicity flux of small-scale fields that does not appear in homogeneous α2 dynamos. In αΩ dynamos, the alternative formalism is shown to lead to larger saturation fields than what has been obtained in some earlier models with the traditional formalism. We have compared the predictions of the two formalisms to results of direct numerical simulations, finding that the alternative formulation provides a better fit. This suggests that worries about catastrophic dynamo behavior in the limit of large magnetic Reynolds number are unfounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]