Formation of wave-front pattern accompanied by current-driven electrostatic ion-cyclotron instabilities

Formation of a wave-front pattern accompanied by an electrostatic ion-cyclotron instability driven by electrons drifting along a magnetic field is investigated by two-and-half dimensional particle simulations. A clear spatial wave-front pattern appears as the ion cyclotron wave grows due to the instability. When the electron stream is uniform in the system, an obliquely intersected stripe wave-front pattern is formed. When the stream has a bell-shaped pattern across the magnetic field, a V-shaped stripe wave-front pattern appears. The wave fronts have small angles with the magnetic field lines and propagate from the high-stream region to the low-stream region

Computer Simulation of a Magnetohydrodynamic Dynamo II

"We performed a computer simulation of a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo in a rapidly rotating spherical shell. Extensive parameter runs are carried out changing the electrical resistivity. It is found that the total magnetic energy can grow more than ten times larger than the total kinetic energy of the convection motion when the resistivity is sufficiently small. When the resistivity is relatively large and the magnetic energy is comparable or smaller than the kinetic energy, the convection motion maintains its well-organized structure. However, when the resistivity is small and the magnetic energy becomes larger than the kinetic energy, the well-organized convection motion is highly disturbed. The generated magnetic field is organized as a set of flux tubes which can be divided into two categories. The magnetic field component parallel to the rotation axis tends to be confined inside the anticyclonic columnar convection cells. On the other hand, the component perpendicular to the rotation axis is confined outside the convection cell.