Abstract
The feasibility of a mean-field dynamo in nonhelical turbulence with a superimposed linear shear is studied numerically in elongated shearing boxes. Exponential growth of the magnetic field at scales much larger than the outer scale of the turbulence is found. The characteristic scale of the field is and the growth rate is , where is the shearing rate. This newly discovered shear dynamo effect potentially represents a very generic mechanism for generating large-scale magnetic fields in a broad class of astrophysical systems with spatially coherent mean flows.
- Received 17 October 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.184501
©2008 American Physical Society