Axel Brandenburg

NORDITA, Suecia

Viernes 30/9/2011, 14 hs
Aula Federman, 1er piso, Pabellón I 

We present the first numerical demonstration of the negative effective magnetic pressure instability in direct numerical simulations of stably-stratified, externally-forced, isothermal hydromagnetic turbulence. By the action of this instability, initially uniform horizontal magnetic field forms flux concentrations whose scale is large compared to the turbulent scale. We further show that the magnetic energy of these large-scale structures is only weakly dependent on the magnetic Reynolds number. Our results support earlier mean-field calculations and analytic work which identified this instability. Applications to the formation of active regions in the Sun are discussed.