Dynamos in rotating and nonrotating convection in the form of asymmetric squares
- We study the dynamo properties of asymmetric square patterns in Boussinesq Rayleigh-B'enard convection in a plane horizontal layer. Cases without rotation and with weak rotation about a vertical axis are considered. There exist different types of solutions distinguished by their symmetry, among them such with flows possessing a net helicity and being capable of kinematic dynamo action in the presence as well as in the absence of rotation. In the nonrotating case these flows are, however, always only kinematic, not nonlinear dynamos. Nonlinearly the back-reaction of the magnetic field then forces the solution into the basin of attraction of a roll pattern incapable of dynamo action. But with rotation added parameter regions are found where the Coriolis force counteracts the Lorentz force in such a way that the asymmetric squares are also nonlinear dynamos.
