Evolution of magnetic fields in freely decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.
We study the evolution of magnetic fields in freely decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. By quasilinearizing the Navier-Stokes equation, we solve analytically the induction equation in the quasinormal approximation. We find that, if the magnetic field is not helical, the magnetic energy and correlation length evolve in time, respectively, as E(B) proportional to t(-2(1+p)/(3+p)) and xi(B) proportional to t(2/(3+p)), where p is the index of initial power-law spectrum. In the helical case, the magnetic helicity is an almost conserved quantity and forces the magnetic energy and correlation length to scale as E(B) proportional to (logt)(1/3)t(-2/3) and xi(B) proportional to (logt)(-1/3)t(2/3).
Campanelli
Leonardo
L
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Ferrara, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy. campanelli@fe.infn.it