Supernova-driven interstellar turbulence and the galactic dynamo

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in simulating interstellar turbulence driven by supernovae and discusses their implications for understanding the galactic dynamo, providing new quantitative insights and scaling relations.

Contribution

It presents new simulation results on supernova-driven turbulence and its role in the galactic dynamo, enhancing the quantitative understanding of the process.

Findings

Simulation results support classical turbulent dynamo theory

New scaling relations for mean-field models are derived

Test field-method results align with analytical predictions

Abstract

The fractal shape and multi-component nature of the interstellar medium together with its vast range of dynamical scales provides one of the great challenges in theoretical and numerical astrophysics. Here we will review recent progress in the direct modelling of interstellar hydromagnetic turbulence, focusing on the role of energy injection by supernova explosions. The implications for dynamo theory will be discussed in the context of the mean-field approach. Results obtained with the test field-method are confronted with analytical predictions and estimates from quasilinear theory. The simulation results enforce the classical understanding of a turbulent Galactic dynamo and, more importantly, yield new quantitative insights. The derived scaling relations enable confident global mean-field modelling.