Turbulent transport and dynamo in sheared magnetohydrodynamics turbulence with a nonuniform magnetic field

Nicolas Leprovost, Eun-jin Kim
2009 Physical Review E  
We investigate three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics turbulence in the presence of both a large-scale velocity and non-uniform magnetic field. By assuming a turbulence driven by an external forcing with both helical and non-helical spectra, we investigate the combined effect of these two shears on turbulence intensity and turbulent transport represented by turbulent diffusivities (turbulent viscosity, α and β effect) in analogy with Reynolds. We show that turbulence viscosity and diffusivity
more » ... e quenched for strong flow shear and magnetic field in the limits of weak and strong magnetic field, respectively. For a weak flow shear, we further show that the magnetic shear increases the turbulence intensity while decreasing the turbulent transport. In the presence of a strong flow shear, the effect of the magnetic shear is found to oppose the effect of flow shear (which reduces turbulence due to shear stabilization) by enhancing turbulence and transport, thereby weakening the strong quenching by flow shear stabilization. In the case of a strong magnetic field (compared to flow shear), magnetic shear increases turbulence intensity and quenches turbulent transport.
doi:10.1103/physreve.80.026302 pmid:19792244 fatcat:n7mpysqtpbdcdalfqceqgkvjhq