Magnetic fields in space: phenomena and related lab experiments


Magnetic fields in space: phenomena and related lab experiments

Stefani, F.

The magnetic fields of cosmic bodies are generated by the homogeneous dynamo effect in moving electrically conducting fluids. Cosmic magnetic fields also play an active role in cosmic structure formation by destabilizing rotational flows that would be otherwise hydrodynamically stable. In 1999 the threshold of magnetic-field self-excitation was exceeded in the two liquid sodium experiments in Riga and Karlsruhe. Since 2006, the Cadarache dynamo experiment has successfully reproduced many features of geophysical interest such as reversals and excursions. In the same year, the helical version of the magnetorotational instability was observed in the PROMISE facility in Dresden-Rossendorf.
The lecture gives an overview about liquid metal experiments on dynamo action and magnetically triggered instabilities, and it concludes with an overview about future experiments, including a precession driven dynamo and a large-scale Tayler-Couette experiment to be set-up in the framework of the DRESDYN project.

  • Invited lecture (Conferences)
    Space trips summer school on thermo-acoustic and space technologies, 17.-20.06.2014, Riga, Latvia

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Publ.-Id: 20617