Self-excitation in a helical liquid metal flow: the Riga dynamo experiments

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plasma physics 2018-06, Vol.84 (3), Article 735840301
Main Authors: Gailitis, A., Gerbeth, G., Gundrum, Th, Lielausis, O., Lipsbergs, G., Platacis, E., Stefani, F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
50 Years of Mean Field Electrodynamics
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0022-3778
1469-7807
DOI:10.1017/S0022377818000363