Dynamic effects on the stretching of the magnetic field by a plasma flow

A key mechanism in the growth of magnetic energy in kinematic dynamos is the stretching of the magnetic field vector by making it point in an unstable direction of the strain matrix. Our objective is to study whether this feature may be maintained in an ideal plasma when also considering the back reaction of the magnetic field upon the flow through the Lorentz force. Several effects occur: in addition to the nonlocal ones exerted by the total pressure, a complex geometry of magnetic field lines decreases the rate of growth of magnetic energy, rotation of the flow enhances it and above all the rate of growth decreases with minus the square of the eigenvalue associated with the magnetic field direction. Thus local dynamics tend to rapidly quench the stretching of the field.