Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-01-03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRAS
Scientific paper
Helical magnetic background fields with adjustable pitch angle are imposed on a conducting fluid in a differentially rotating cylindrical container. The small-scale kinetic and current helicities are calculated for various field geometries, and shown to have the opposite sign as the helicity of the large-scale field. These helicities and also the corresponding $\alpha$-effect scale with the current helicity of the background field. The $\alpha$-tensor is highly anisotropic as the components $\alpha_{\phi\phi}$ and $\alpha_{zz}$ have opposite signs. The amplitudes of the azimuthal $\alpha$-effect computed with the cylindrical 3D MHD code are so small that the operation of an $\alpha\Omega$ dynamo on the basis of the current-driven, kink-type instabilities of toroidal fields is highly questionable. In any case the low value of the $\alpha$-effect would lead to very long growth times of a dynamo in the radiation zone of the Sun and early-type stars of the order of mega-years.
Gellert Marcus
Hollerbach Rainer
Ruediger Guenther
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