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arxiv 2112.03838 v3 pith:ILRF3S2A submitted 2021-12-07 astro-ph.GA

Dynamo effect in unstirred self-gravitating turbulence

classification astro-ph.GA
keywords magneticenergyfieldkineticturbulencecompressionaldynamoforce
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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In many astrophysical environments, self-gravity can generate kinetic energy, which, in principle, is available for driving dynamo action. Using direct numerical simulations, we show that in unstirred self-gravitating subsonic turbulence with helicity and a magnetic Prandtl number of unity, there is a critical magnetic Reynolds number of about 25 above which the work done against the Lorentz force exceeds the Ohmic dissipation. The collapse itself drives predominantly irrotational motions that cannot be responsible for dynamo action. We find that, with a weak magnetic field, one-third of the work done by the gravitational force goes into compressional heating and the remaining two-thirds go first into kinetic energy of the turbulence before a fraction of it is converted further into magnetic and finally thermal energies. Close to the collapse, however, these fractions change toward 1/4 and 3/4 for compressional heating and kinetic energy, respectively. When the magnetic field is strong, the compressional heating fraction is unchanged. Out of the remaining kinetic energy, one quarter goes directly into magnetic energy via work against the Lorentz force. The fraction of vortical motions diminishes in favor of compressive motions that are almost exclusively driven by the Jeans instability. For an initially uniform magnetic field, field amplification at scales larger than those of the initial turbulence are driven by tangling.

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  1. The dynamical origin of the magnetic field distributions in compressible turbulence

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0

    Power-law tails in turbulent magnetic field PDFs arise from intermittent Poisson-distributed shocks convolved with a lognormal core, with tail asymmetry determined by the ratio of fast to slow MHD shocks.