Modeling spatio-temporal nonlocality in mean-field dynamos

Abstract

When scale separation in space or time is poor, the mean-field α effect and turbulent diffusivity have to be replaced by integral kernels by which the dependence of the mean electromotive force on the mean magnetic field becomes nonlocal. Earlier work in computing these kernels using the test-field method is now generalized to the case in which both spatial and temporal scale separations are poor. The approximate form of the kernel for isotropic stationary turbulence is such that it can be treated in a straightforward manner by solving a partial differential equation for the mean electromotive force. The resulting mean-field equations are solved for oscillatory α -shear dynamos as well as α 2 dynamos with α linearly depending on position, which makes this dynamo oscillatory, too. In both cases, the critical values of the dynamo number is lowered due to spatio-temporal nonlocality. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.