Correlation times of velocity and kinetic helicity fluctuations in non-helical hydrodynamic turbulence

Abstract

Non-helical turbulence within a linear shear flow has demonstrated efficient amplification of large-scale magnetic fields in numerical simulations, but its precise mechanism remains elusive. The incoherent $\alpha$ mechanism proposes that a zero-mean fluctuating transport coefficient $\alpha$ (linked to kinetic helicity) in the shear flow is a candidate driver. Previous renovating-flow models have proposed that the correlation time of helicity fluctuations must be sufficiently extended to overcome turbulent magnetic diffusivity, yet only empirical validation of this concept has been obtained. In this study, we conduct direct numerical simulations of weakly compressible non-helical hydrodynamic turbulence. We scrutinize the correlation times of velocity and kinetic helicity fluctuations in distinct flow configurations, including rotation, shearing and Keplerian flows, as well as the shearing burgulence counterpart. Our findings indicate that rotation contributes to a prolonged correlation time of helicity compared with velocity, particularly notable in auto-correlations of both volume-averaged quantities and individual Fourier modes due to the formation of large-scale vortices. In contrast, moderate shear strength does not exhibit significant scale separation, with shear flows elongating vortices in the shear direction. Shearing burgulence, characterized by shorter helicity correlation times, appears less conducive to hosting the incoherent $\alpha$ effect. Notably, at modest shear rates, only Keplerian flows exhibit sufficiently coherent helicity fluctuations, in contrast to shearing flows. However, the relative strength of helicity fluctuations compared with turbulent diffusivity is significantly lower, raising doubts about the viability of the incoherent $\alpha$ effect as a potential dynamo driver in the subsonic flows examined in this study.