Excitability in the vicinity of a saddle-node bifurcation: a mechanism for reversals

We present a new mechanism for oscillatory or random reversals of the magnetic field that occur from a stationary dynamo state. The basic ingredient is the existence of two nearly critical dynamo eigenmodes, a stable and an unstable one, that collide during a saddle-node bifurcation. Above this bifurcation, a finite amplitude limit cycle is generated. In the neighbourhood of the bifurcation, even a small amount of turbulent fluctuations is enough to generate random reversals of the magnetic field. When the two competing eigenmodes have different symmetries, this scenario requires a broken symmetry of the flow that generates the dynamo. This is in good agreement with the observations of the VKS experiment. It can also explain the dynamics of planetary or stellar magnetic fields and can be used to understand reversals of large scale flows that often develop on a turbulent background.