# Enhancement of Small-scale Turbulent Dynamo by Large-scale Shear Academic Article

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### abstract

• Using direct numerical simulations we show that large-scale shear in non-helically forced turbulence supports small-scale dynamo action with zero mean magnetic field, i.e., the dynamo growth rate increases with shear and shear enhances or even produces turbulence, which, in turn, further increases the dynamo growth rate. When the production rates of turbulent kinetic energy due to shear and forcing are of the same order, we find scalings for the growth rate $\gamma$ of the small-scale dynamo and the turbulent velocity $u_{\rm rms}$ with shear rate $S$ that are independent of the magnetic Prandtl number: $\gamma \propto |S|$ and $u_{\rm rms} \propto |S|^{2/3}$. Having compensated for shear-induced effects on turbulent velocity, we find that the normalized growth rate of the small-scale dynamo exhibits a universal scaling, $\widetilde{\gamma}\propto |S|^{2/3}$, arising solely from the induction equation for a given velocity field.

### publication date

• November 15, 2017