A Liquid Sodium Plume-Driven Helicity Dynamo Experiment

新墨西哥理工学院的液体钠发电机实验旨在演示行星、恒星和活动星系核(AGN)吸积盘中的自然流动如何产生这些天体的磁场。这项研究的科学问题是，在导电流体中产生相干螺旋度所必需的驱动羽流是否会产生如此大的湍流电阻率，从而阻止必要的正交欧米伽或剪切增益，从而阻止指数发电机增益。在教育方面，该项目为本科生提供了研究机会。标准的信念是，无论运动的随机性如何，导电流体中的湍流都会在天体物理环境中产生发电机。这个实验的目的是证明相反的。液态钠中的低湍流剪切流(本实验)已经证明了欧米伽增益为8倍。实验问题是，螺旋度注入约八分之一的切变流是否可以在不降低湍流电阻率低于阈值的欧米伽增益的情况下重建原始的极向场。

The Liquid Sodium Dynamo Experiment at New Mexico Tech is designed to demonstrate how naturally occurring flows in planets, stars, and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) accretion disks can generate the magnetic fields of these bodies. The scientific question of the research is whether driven plumes, necessary for coherent helicity generation in a conducting fluid will create so much turbulent resistivity as to prevent the necessary orthogonal omega or shear gain and thus prevent exponential dynamo gain. Educationally, the project offers research opportunities for undergraduates.The standard belief is that turbulence in a conducting fluid will make a dynamo in astrophysical circumstances regardless of the randomness of the motions. This experiment is designed to prove the contrary. A low turbulent shear flow in liquid sodium (this experiment) has already demonstrated an omega gain of a factor of eight. The experimental question is whether helicity injection of approximately one-eighth the shear flow can recreate the original poloidal field without reducing the omega gain by turbulent resistivity below threshold.