Detection of Negative Effective Magnetic Pressure Instability in Turbulence Simulations

et al. 2013

A&A

Context. In a strongly stratified turbulent layer, a uniform horizontal magnetic field can become unstable and spontaneously form local flux concentrations due to a negative contribution of turbulence to the large-scale (mean-field) magnetic pressure. This mechanism, which is called negative effective magnetic pressure instability (NEMPI), is of interest in connection with dynamo scenarios in which most of the magnetic field resides in the bulk of the convection zone and not at the bottom, as is often assumed. Recent work using mean-field hydromagnetic equations has shown that NEMPI becomes suppressed at rather low rotation rates with Coriolis numbers as low as 0.1. Aims. Here we extend these earlier investigations by studying the effects of rotation both on the development of NEMPI and on the effective magnetic pressure. We also quantify the kinetic helicity resulting from direct numerical simulations (DNS) with Coriolis numbers and strengths of stratification comparable to values near the solar surface and compare it with earlier work at smaller scale separation ratios. Further, we estimate the expected observable signals of magnetic helicity at the solar surface. Methods. To calculate the rotational effect on the effective magnetic pressure we consider both DNS and analytical studies using the τ approach. To study the effects of rotation on the development of NEMPI we use both DNS and mean-field calculations of the three-dimensional hydromagnetic equations in a Cartesian domain. Results. We find that the growth rates of NEMPI from earlier mean-field calculations are well reproduced with DNS, provided the Coriolis number is below 0.06. In that case, kinetic and magnetic helicities are found to be weak and the rotational effect on the effective magnetic pressure is negligible as long as the production of flux concentrations is not inhibited by rotation. For faster rotation, dynamo action becomes possible. However, there is an intermediate range of rotation rates where dynamo action on its own is not yet possible, but the rotational suppression of NEMPI is being alleviated. Conclusions. Production of magnetic flux concentrations through the suppression of turbulent pressure appears to be possible only in the uppermost layers of the Sun, where the convective turnover time is less than two hours.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Competition of rotation and stratification in flux concentrations

Losada

et al. 2013

A&A

“…Brandenburg et al 2010Brandenburg et al , 2012Kemel et al 2012b;Käpylä et al 2012a, and references therein). Further numerical studies have confirmed the existence of NEMPI in direct numerical simulations (DNS) of forced turbulence with weak imposed horizontal (Brandenburg et al 2011) and vertical ) magnetic fields, and in a two-layer system with an upper unforced coronal layer and a lower forced layer (Warnecke et al 2013(Warnecke et al , 2016. With NEMPI, even uniform, sub-equipartition magnetic fields can lead to flux concentrations if there is sufficient scale separation between the forcing scale and the size of the domain in highly stratified turbulence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The origin of such a field could be, e.g., an αΩ-type dynamo (Warnecke et al 2014). When NEMPI was excited, magnetic field concentrations were best detected in averages taken along the direction of the imposed field (Brandenburg et al 2011;Kemel et al 2012aKemel et al , 2013 if the scale separation between forcing scale and the size of the box is smaller than 30. We show two such cases for Runs A3h and C1h with the lowest and highest stratifications in Figs.…”

Section: Imposed Horizontal Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic flux concentrations from turbulent stratified convection

Käpylä

et al. 2016

A&A

Context. The formation of magnetic flux concentrations within the solar convection zone leading to sunspot formation is unexplained. Aims. We study the self-organization of initially uniform sub-equipartition magnetic fields by highly stratified turbulent convection. Methods. We perform simulations of magnetoconvection in Cartesian domains representing the uppermost 8.5−24 Mm of the solar convection zone with the horizontal size of the domain varying between 34 and 96 Mm. The density contrast in the 24 Mm deep models is more than 3 × 10 3 or eight density scale heights, corresponding to a little over 12 pressure scale heights. We impose either a vertical or a horizontal uniform magnetic field in a convection-driven turbulent flow in set-ups where no small-scale dynamos are present. In the most highly stratified cases we employ the reduced sound speed method to relax the time step constraint arising from the high sound speed in the deep layers. We model radiation via the diffusion approximation and neglect detailed radiative transfer in order to concentrate on purely magnetohydrodynamic effects. Results. We find that super-equipartition magnetic flux concentrations are formed near the surface in cases with moderate and high density stratification, corresponding to domain depths of 12.5 and 24 Mm. The size of the concentrations increases as the box size increases and the largest structures (20 Mm horizontally near the surface) are obtained in the models that are 24 Mm deep. The field strength in the concentrations is in the range of 3-5 kG, almost independent of the magnitude of the imposed field. The amplitude of the concentrations grows approximately linearly in time. The effective magnetic pressure measured in the simulations is positive near the surface and negative in the bulk of the convection zone. Its derivative with respect to the mean magnetic field, however, is positive in most of the domain, which is unfavourable for the operation of the negative effective magnetic pressure instability (NEMPI). Simulations in which a passive vector field is evolved do not show a noticeable difference from magnetohydrodynamic runs in terms of the growth of the structures. Furthermore, we find that magnetic flux is concentrated in regions of converging flow corresponding to large-scale supergranulation convection pattern. Conclusions. The linear growth of large-scale flux concentrations implies that their dominant formation process is a tangling of the large-scale field rather than an instability. One plausible mechanism that can explain both the linear growth and the concentration of the flux in the regions of converging flow pattern is flux expulsion. A possible reason for the absence of NEMPI is that the derivative of the effective magnetic pressure with respect to the mean magnetic field has an unfavourable sign. Furthermore, there may not be sufficient scale separation, which is required for NEMPI to work.

“…We also compare our MFS results with those of DNS (Brandenburg et al 2011;Kemel et al 2013) using a similar polytropic setup. The governing equations for the mean quantities (denoted by an overbar) are fairly similar to those for the original equations, except that in the MFS viscosity and magnetic diffusivity are replaced by their turbulent counterparts, and the mean Lorentz force is supplemented by a parameterization of the turbulent contribution to the effective magnetic pressure.…”

Section: Mean-field Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic flux concentrations in a polytropic atmosphere

Losada

2014

A&A

Context. Strongly stratified hydromagnetic turbulence has recently been identified as a candidate for explaining the spontaneous formation of magnetic flux concentrations by the negative effective magnetic pressure instability (NEMPI). Much of this work has been done for isothermal layers, in which the density scale height is constant throughout. Aims. We now want to know whether earlier conclusions regarding the size of magnetic structures and their growth rates carry over to the case of polytropic layers, in which the scale height decreases sharply as one approaches the surface. Methods. To allow for a continuous transition from isothermal to polytropic layers, we employ a generalization of the exponential function known as the q-exponential. This implies that the top of the polytropic layer shifts with changing polytropic index such that the scale height is always the same at some reference height. We used both mean-field simulations (MFS) and direct numerical simulations (DNS) of forced stratified turbulence to determine the resulting flux concentrations in polytropic layers. Cases of both horizontal and vertical applied magnetic fields were considered. Results. Magnetic structures begin to form at a depth where the magnetic field strength is a small fraction of the local equipartition field strength with respect to the turbulent kinetic energy. Unlike the isothermal case where stronger fields can give rise to magnetic flux concentrations at larger depths, in the polytropic case the growth rate of NEMPI decreases for structures deeper down. Moreover, the structures that form higher up have a smaller horizontal scale of about four times their local depth. For vertical fields, magnetic structures of super-equipartition strengths are formed, because such fields survive downward advection that causes NEMPI with horizontal magnetic fields to reach premature nonlinear saturation by what is called the "potato-sack" effect. The horizontal cross-section of such structures found in DNS is approximately circular, which is reproduced with MFS of NEMPI using a vertical magnetic field. Conclusions. Results based on isothermal models can be applied locally to polytropic layers. For vertical fields, magnetic flux concentrations of super-equipartition strengths form, which supports suggestions that sunspot formation might be a shallow phenomenon.