Amplitude equations for weakly nonlinear two-scale perturbations of free hydromagnetic convective regimes in a rotating layer

Weakly non-linear stability of regimes of free hydromagnetic thermal convection in a rotating horizontal layer with free electrically conducting boundaries is considered in the Boussinesq approximation. Perturbations are supposed to involve large spatial and temporal scales. Applying methods for homogenisation of parabolic equations, we derive the system of amplitude equations governing the evolution of perturbations under the assumption that the alpha-effect is insignificant in the leading order. The amplitude equations involve the operators of anisotropic combined eddy diffusivity correction and advection. The system is qualitatively different from the system of mean-field equations for large-scale perturbations of forced convective hydromagnetic regimes. It is mixed: equations for the mean magnetic perturbation are evolutionary, all the rest involve neither time derivatives, nor the molecular diffusivity operator.Comment: Accepted in Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. 24 p

Convective plan-form two-scale dynamos in a plane layer

We study generation of magnetic fields, involving large spatial scales, by convective plan-forms in a horizontal layer. Magnetic modes and their growth rates are expanded in power series in the scale ratio, and the magnetic eddy diffusivity (MED) tensor is derived for flows, symmetric about the vertical axis in a layer. For convective rolls magnetic eddy correction is demonstrated to be always positive. For rectangular cell patterns, the region in the parameter space of negative MED coincides with that of small-scale magnetic field generation. No instances of negative MED in hexagonal cells are found. A family of plan-forms with a smaller symmetry group than that of rectangular cell patterns has been found numerically, where MED is negative for molecular magnetic diffusivity over the threshold for the onset of small-scale magnetic field generation.Comment: Latex. 24 pages with 3 Postscript figures, 19 references. Final version (expanded Appendix 2, 4 references added, notation changed to a more "user-friendly"), accepted in Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamic