Galactic dynamo and helicity losses through fountain flow

Shukurov, Anvar; Sokoloff, Dmitry; Subramanian, Kandaswamy; Brandenburg, Axel

Galactic dynamo and helicity losses through fountain flow

Authors

Shukurov, Anvar

Sokoloff, Dmitry

Subramanian, Kandaswamy

Brandenburg, Axel

Description

Nonlinear behaviour of galactic dynamos is studied, allowing for magnetic helicity removal by the galactic fountain flow. A suitable advection speed is estimated, and a one-dimensional mean-field dynamo model with dynamic alpha-effect is explored. It is shown that the galactic fountain flow is efficient in removing magnetic helicity from galactic discs. This alleviates the constraint on the galactic mean-field dynamo resulting from magnetic helicity conservation and thereby allows the mean magnetic field to saturate at a strength comparable to equipartition with the turbulent kinetic energy.
4 pages, 2 figures, accepted by A&A Letters