Straining of magnetic fields by large-scale shear flow, which is generally assumed to lead to intensification and generation of small scales, is reexamined in light of the persistent observation of large-scale magnetic fields in astrophysics. It is shown that, in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, unstable shear flows have the unexpected effect of sequestering magnetic energy at large scales due to counteracting straining motion of nonlinearly excited large-scale stable eigenmodes. This effect is quantified via dissipation rates, energy transfer rates, and visualizations of magnetic field evolution by artificially removing the stable modes. These analyses show that predictions based upon physics of the linear instability alone miss substantial dynamics, including those of magnetic fluctuations.
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July 2022
Letter|
July 06 2022
Mechanism for sequestering magnetic energy at large scales in shear-flow turbulence
B. Tripathi
;
B. Tripathi
a)
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
University of Wisconsin-Madison
, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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A. E. Fraser
;
A. E. Fraser
b)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – review & editing)
2
University of California
, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
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P. W. Terry
;
P. W. Terry
c)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing)
1
University of Wisconsin-Madison
, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
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E. G. Zweibel
;
E. G. Zweibel
d)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing)
1
University of Wisconsin-Madison
, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
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M. J. Pueschel
M. J. Pueschel
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing)
3
Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research
, 5612 AJ Eindhoven, The Netherlands
4
Eindhoven University of Technology
, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
c)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
d)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Phys. Plasmas 29, 070701 (2022)
Article history
Received:
April 22 2022
Accepted:
June 13 2022
Citation
B. Tripathi, A. E. Fraser, P. W. Terry, E. G. Zweibel, M. J. Pueschel; Mechanism for sequestering magnetic energy at large scales in shear-flow turbulence. Phys. Plasmas 1 July 2022; 29 (7): 070701. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0096886
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