Magnetic field amplification during a turbulent collapse

TL;DR

This study uses 3D simulations to demonstrate that gravitational collapse can trigger magnetic dynamo action through turbulence, with amplification depending on turbulence helicity, collapse time, and flow properties.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulation-based evidence that gravitational collapse can induce magnetic dynamo amplification in turbulent flows, highlighting the roles of helicity and flow irrotationality.

Findings

Exponential magnetic field growth occurs before turbulence decay.

Helical turbulence enhances dynamo efficiency more than nonhelical turbulence.

Vorticity growth is linked to Lorentz force curl and viscosity effects.

Abstract

The question of whether a dynamo can be triggered by gravitational collapse is of great interest, especially for the early Universe. Here, we employ supercomoving coordinates to study the magnetic field amplification from decaying turbulence during gravitational collapse. We perform three-dimensional simulations and show that for large magnetic Reynolds numbers there can be exponential growth of the comoving magnetic field with conformal time before the decay of turbulence impedes further amplification. The collapse dynamics only affects the nonlinear feedback from the Lorentz force, which diminishes more rapidly for shorter collapse times, allowing nearly kinematic continued growth. We confirm that helical turbulence is more efficient in driving dynamo action than nonhelical turbulence, but this difference decreases for larger collapse times. We also show that for nearly irrotational flows, dynamo amplification is still possible, but it is always associated with a growth of vorticity -- even if it still remains very small. In nonmagnetic runs, the growth of vorticity is associated with viscosity and grows with the Mach number. In the presence of magnetic fields, vorticity emerges from the curl of the Lorentz force. During a limited time interval, an exponential growth of the comoving magnetic field with conformal time is interpreted as clear evidence of dynamo action.