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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 102 » Issue 14
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 144503 (2009) [4 pages]

Simple Mechanism for Reversals of Earth’s Magnetic Field

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François Pétrélis1, Stéphan Fauve1, Emmanuel Dormy2,3, and Jean-Pierre Valet3
1Ecole Normale Supérieure, LPS, UMR CNRS 8550, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France
2Ecole Normale Supérieure, LRA, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75005, Paris, France
3Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, UMR CNRS 7154, 4, Place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France

Received 2 October 2008; published 7 April 2009

We show that a model, recently used to describe all the dynamical regimes of the magnetic field generated by the dynamo effect in the von Kármán sodium experiment, also provides a simple explanation of the reversals of Earth’s magnetic field, despite strong differences between both systems. The validity of the model relies on the smallness of the magnetic Prandtl number.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.144503
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.144503
PACS:
47.65.−d, 52.65.Kj, 91.25.Cw
 
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