Science, Vol.351, No.6280, 1427-1430, 2016
Large-scale magnetic fields at high Reynolds numbers in magnetohydrodynamic simulations
The 11-year solarmagnetic cycle shows a high degree of coherence in spite of the turbulent nature of the solar convection zone. It has been found in recent high-resolution magnetohydrodynamics simulations that the maintenance of a large-scale coherent magnetic field is difficult with small viscosity and magnetic diffusivity (<= 10(12) square centimenters per second). We reproduced previous findings that indicate a reduction of the energy in the large-scalemagnetic field for lower diffusivities and demonstrate the recovery of the global-scalemagnetic field using unprecedentedly high resolution. We found an efficient small-scale dynamo that suppresses small-scale flows, which mimics the properties of large diffusivity. As a result, the global-scale magnetic field is maintained even in the regime of small diffusivities-that is, large Reynolds numbers.