From Weibel seeds to collisionless dynamos beyond pair-plasmas

Read full text
Authors: Lise Hanebring, James Juno, Ammar H. Hakim, Jason M. TenBarge, István Pusztai
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Bridging the spatiotemporal scales of magnetic seed field generation and subsequent dynamo amplification in the weakly collisional intracluster medium presents an extreme numerical challenge. We perform collisionless turbulence simulations with initially unmagnetized electrons that capture both magnetic seed generation via the electron Weibel instability and the ensuing dynamo amplification. Going beyond existing pair-plasma studies, we use an ion-to-electron mass ratio of 100 for which we find electron and ion dynamics are sufficiently decoupled. These simulations are enabled by the 10-moment collisionless fluid solver of Gkeyll, which evolves the full pressure tensor for all species. The electron heat-flux closure regulates pressure isotropization and effectively sets the magnetic Reynolds number. We investigate how the strength of the closure influences the transition between a regime reminiscent of previous kinetic pair-plasma simulations and a regime exhibiting dynamo behavior qualitatively similar to magnetohydrodynamics.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena Galaxies: Formation Evolution Phenomena

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
15 January 2026
Document type
Preprint