A unified approach to a class of slow dynamos

Abstract

Dynamo action in a highly conducting fluid with small magnetic diffusivity η is particularly sensitive to the topology of the flow. The sites of rapid magnetic field regeneration, when they occur, appear to be located at the stagnation points or in regions where the particle paths are chaotic. Elsewhere only slow dynamo action is to be expected. Two such examples are the nearly axially symmetric dynamo of Braginsky and the generalisation to smooth velocity fields of the Ponomarenko dynamo. Here a method of solution is developed, which applies to both these examples and is applicable to other situations, where magnetic field lines are close to either closed or spatially periodic contours. Particular attention is given to field generation in the neighbourhood of resonant surfaces where growth rates may be intermediate between the slow diffusive and fast convective time scales. The method is applied to the case of the two-dimensional ABC-flows, where it is shown that such intermediate dynamo action can occur on resonant surfaces.