Dominant Electrostatic Nature of the Reversed Field Pinch Dynamo

Abstract

The origin of the dynamo velocity field of the reversed field pinch within the visco-resistive MHD modeling is uncovered. The main component of this field is an electrostatic drift. The corresponding electrostatic field is related to a small charge separation which is consistent with the quasineutrality approximation, and which should be present in real plasmas, too. While quite natural in the stationary single helicity state, this analysis is shown to extend also to the nonstationary multiple helicity regime. Numerical simulations provide the spatial distribution of fields and of charge separation.