Turbulent diffusion and galactic magnetism

Using the test-field method for nearly irrotational turbulence driven by spherical expansion waves it is shown that the turbulent magnetic diffusivity increases with magnetic Reynolds numbers. Its value levels off at several times the rms velocity of the turbulence multiplied by the typical radius of the expansion waves. This result is discussed in the context of the galactic mean-field dynamo.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media", proceedings of Joint Discussion at the 2009 XXVII IAU General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro from 12 to 14 August, 200

Magnetic helicity fluxes and their effect on stellar dynamos

Magnetic helicity fluxes in turbulently driven alpha^2 dynamos are studied to demonstrate their ability to alleviate catastrophic quenching. A one-dimensional mean-field formalism is used to achieve magnetic Reynolds numbers of the order of 10^5. We study both diffusive magnetic helicity fluxes through the mid-plane as well as those resulting from the recently proposed alternate dynamic quenching formalism. By adding shear we make a parameter scan for the critical values of the shear and forcing parameters for which dynamo action occurs. For this $\alpha\Omega$ dynamo we find that the preferred mode is antisymmetric about the mid-plane. This is also verified in 3-D direct numerical simulations.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of IAU Symp. 286, Comparative Magnetic Minima: characterizing quiet times in the Sun and star

Towards Dark Energy from String-Theory

We discuss vacuum energy in string and M-theory with a focus on heterotic M-theory. In the latter theory a mechanism is described for maintaining zero vacuum energy after supersymmetry breaking. Higher-order corrections can be expected to give a sufficiently small amount of vacuum energy to possibly account for dark energy.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure; v2: references adde

A numerical approach for fluid deformable surfaces with conserved enclosed volume

We consider surface finite elements and a semi-implicit time stepping scheme to simulate fluid deformable surfaces. Such surfaces are modeled by incompressible surface Navier-Stokes equations with bending forces. We here consider closed surfaces and enforce conservation of the enclosed volume. The numerical approach builds on higher order surface parameterizations, a Taylor-Hood element for the surface Navier-Stokes part, appropriate approximations of the geometric quantities of the surface and a Lagrange multiplier for the constraint. The considered computational examples highlight the solid-fluid duality of fluid deformable surfaces and demonstrate convergence properties, partly known to be optimal for different sub-problems