Fourier space intermittency of the small-scale turbulent dynamo

The small-scale turbulent dynamo in the high Prandtl number regime is described in terms of the one-point Fourier space correlators. The second order correlator of this kind is the energy spectrum and it has been previously studied in detail. We examine the higher order k-space correlators which contain important information about the phases of the magnetic wavepackets and about the dominant structures of the magnetic turbulence which cause intermittency. In particular, the fourth-order correlators contain information about the mean-square phase difference between any two components of the magnetic field in a plane transverse to the wavevector. This can be viewed as a measure of the magnetic fields polarization. Examining this new quantity, the magnetic field is shown to become plane polarized in the Kazantsev-Kraichnan model at large time, corresponding to a strong deviation from Gaussianity. We derive a closed equation for the generating function of the Fourier correlators and find the large-time asymptotic solutions of these correlators at all orders. The time scaling of these solutions implies the magnetic field has log-normal statistics, whereas the wavenumber scaling indicates that the field is dominated by intermittent fluctuations at high k.

The small-scale turbulent dynamo in smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics

Supersonic turbulence is believed to be at the heart of star formation. We have performed smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics (SPMHD) simulations of the small-scale dynamo amplification of magnetic fields in supersonic turbulence. The calculations use isothermal gas driven at rms velocity of Mach 10 so that conditions are representative of star-forming molecular clouds in the Milky Way. The growth of magnetic energy is followed for 10 orders in magnitude until it reaches saturation, a few percent of the kinetic energy. The results of our dynamo calculations are compared with results from grid-based methods, finding excellent agreement on their statistics and their qualitative behaviour. The simulations utilise the latest algorithmic developments we have developed, in particular, a new divergence cleaning approach to maintain the solenoidal constraint on the magnetic field and a method to reduce the numerical dissipation of the magnetic shock capturing scheme. We demonstrate that our divergence cleaning method may be used to achieve $ abla cdot {bf B}=0$ to machine precision, albeit at significant computational expense.

Small-scale turbulent dynamo in astrophysical environments: nonlinear dynamo and dynamo in a partially ionized plasma

Small-scale turbulent dynamo is responsible for the amplification of magnetic fields on scales smaller than the driving scale of turbulence in diverse astrophysical media. Most earlier dynamo theories concern the kinematic regime and small-scale magnetic field amplification. Here we review our recent progress in developing the theories for the nonlinear dynamo and the dynamo regime in a partially ionized plasma. The importance of reconnection diffusion of magnetic fields is identified for both the nonlinear dynamo and magnetic field amplification during gravitational contraction. For the dynamo in a partially ionized plasma, the coupling state between neutrals and ions and the ion-neutral collisional damping can significantly affect the dynamo behavior and the resulting magnetic field structure. We present both our analytical predictions and numerical tests with a two-fluid dynamo simulation on the dynamo features in this regime. In addition, to illustrate the astrophysical implications, we discuss several examples for the applications of the dynamo theory to studying magnetic field evolution in both preshock and postshock regions of supernova remnants, in weakly magnetized molecular clouds, during the (primordial) star formation, and during the first galaxy formation.

Small-scale dynamos in simulations of stratified turbulent convection

Small-scale dynamo action is often held responsible for the generation of quiet-Sun magnetic fields. We aim to determine the excitation conditions and saturation level of small-scale dynamos in non-rotating turbulent convection at low magnetic Prandtl numbers. We use high resolution direct numerical simulations of weakly stratified turbulent convection. We find that the critical magnetic Reynolds number for dynamo excitation increases as the magnetic Prandtl number is decreased, which might suggest that small-scale dynamo action is not automatically evident in bodies with small magnetic Prandtl numbers as the Sun. As a function of the magnetic Reynolds number (${rm Rm}$), the growth rate of the dynamo is consistent with an ${rm Rm}^{1/2}$ scaling. No evidence for a logarithmic increase of the growth rate with ${rm Rm}$ is found.

On the small scale turbulent dynamo in the intracluster medium: A comparison to dynamo theory

We present non-radiative, cosmological zoom-simulations of galaxy cluster formation with magnetic fields and (anisotropic) thermal conduction of one very massive galaxy cluster with a mass at redshift zero that corresponds to $M_mathrm{vir} sim 2 times 10^{15} M_{odot}$. We run the cluster on three resolution levels (1X, 10X, 25X), starting with an effective mass resolution of $2 times 10^8M_{odot}$, subsequently increasing the particle number to reach $4 times 10^6M_{odot}$. The maximum spatial resolution obtained in the simulations is limited by the gravitational softening reaching $epsilon=1.0$ kpc at the highest resolution level, allowing to resolve the hierarchical assembly of the structures in very fine detail. All simulations presented, have been carried out with the SPMHD-code Gadget-3 with a heavily updated SPMHD prescription. The primary focus is to investigate magnetic field amplification in the Intracluster Medium (ICM). We show that the main amplification mechanism is the small scale-turbulent-dynamo in the limit of reconnection diffusion. In our two highest resolution models we start to resolve the magnetic field amplification driven by this process and we explicitly quantify this with the magnetic power-spectra and the magnetic tension that limits the bending of the magnetic field lines consistent with dynamo theory. Furthermore, we investigate the $ abla cdot mathbf{B}=0$ constraint within our simulations and show that we achieve comparable results to state-of-the-art AMR or moving-mesh techniques, used in codes such as Enzo and Arepo. Our results show for the first time in a fully cosmological simulation of a galaxy cluster that dynamo action can be resolved in the framework of a modern Lagrangian magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) method, a study that is currently missing in the literature.