# Electromotive force and large-scale magnetic dynamo in a turbulent flow with a mean shear Academic Article

•
• Overview
•
•
• View All
•

### abstract

• An effect of sheared large-scale motions on a mean electromotive force in a nonrotating turbulent flow of a conducting fluid is studied. It is demonstrated that in a homogeneous divergence-free turbulent flow the $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ effect does not exist, however a mean magnetic field can be generated even in a nonrotating turbulence with an imposed mean velocity shear due to a shear-current'' effect. A mean velocity shear results in an anisotropy of turbulent magnetic diffusion. A contribution to the electromotive force related to the symmetric parts of the gradient tensor of the mean magnetic field (the $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ effect) is found in nonrotating turbulent flows with a mean shear. The $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ effect and turbulent magnetic diffusion reduce the growth rate of the mean magnetic field. It is shown that a mean magnetic field can be generated when the exponent of the energy spectrum of the background turbulence (without the mean velocity shear) is less than 2. The shear-current effect was studied using two different methods: the $\ensuremath{\tau}$ approximation (the Orszag third-order closure procedure) and the stochastic calculus (the path integral representation of the solution of the induction equation, Feynman-Kac formula, and Cameron-Martin-Girsanov theorem). Astrophysical applications of the obtained results are discussed.

### publication date

• September 3, 2003