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Phys. Rev. E 80, 046308 (2009) [13 pages]

Kinematic α effect in the presence of a large-scale motion

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Alice Courvoisier*
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom

Eun-jin Kim
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom

Received 20 May 2009; published 9 October 2009

We investigate how the addition of a large-scale steady motion, either shear or uniform flow, modifies the magnetic transport properties of a family of chaotic velocity fields with different correlation times. We compute numerically the kinematic α effect that those flows give rise to and show that it is reduced by the presence of a large-scale motion parallel to the large-scale magnetic field, except under certain conditions when it can be slightly enhanced via resonances. The α effect is shown to depend on the nature of the large-scale motion and on the temporal characteristics of the chaotic flow. These results highlight the strong influence that a shear or a uniform flow can have on the turbulent transport of magnetic fields.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.046308
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.80.046308
PACS:
47.27.T−, 47.65.Md, 52.25.Fi, 96.60.Jw

*alice@maths.leeds.ac.uk