Self-excitation in a helical liquid metal flow: the Riga dynamo experiments. (7th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gailitis, A.; Gerbeth, G.; Gundrum, Th.; Lielausis, O.; Lipsbergs, G.; Platacis, E.; Stefani, F.
• Is Part Of: Journal of plasma physics. Volume 84:Number 3(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-05-07
• Subjects: astrophysical plasmas; Plasma (Ionized gases) -- Periodicals; 530.4405
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022377818000363
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3778

Abstract

Abstract : The homogeneous dynamo effect is at the root of magnetic field generation in cosmic bodies, including planets, stars and galaxies. While the underlying theory had increasingly flourished since the middle of the 20th century, hydromagnetic dynamos were not realized in the laboratory until 1999. On 11 November 1999, this situation changed with the first observation of a kinematic dynamo in the Riga experiment. Since that time, a series of experimental campaigns has provided a wealth of data on the kinematic and the saturated regime. This paper is intended to give a comprehensive survey about these experiments, to summarize their main results and to compare them with numerical simulations.