On the magnetic flux linkage of an electrically-conducting fluid

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A method has recently been proposed for finding the radius rc of the electrically-conducting fluid core of a planet of outer radius rs from observations of the magnetic field B in the accessible region near or well above the surface of the planet (Hide, 1978). The method is based on the supposition that when the magnetic field is produced by hydromagnetic dynamo action in the core, implying that the magnetic Reynolds number R there is large, (a) fluctuations in B can occur everywhere on the comparatively short advective time-scale τ A associated with fluid motions in the core and so can fluctuations in the quantity N, defined for any closed surface S as the total number of intersection of magnetic lines of force with S, provided that S lies well outside the core, but (b) at the surface of the core, where lines of magnetic force emerge from their region of origin, concomitant fluctuations in N are negligibly small, of the order of τ A/τO where τ O (= RτA ) is the Ohmic decay time of the core. A proof of this supposition follows directly from the general expression derived in the present paper showing that when S is a material surface the time rate of change of N is equal to minus twice the line integral of the current density divided by the electrical conductivity around all the lines on S where the magnetic field is tangential to S. This expression (which Palmer in an accompanying paper rederives and extends to the relativistic case using the mathematical formalism of Cartan’s exterior calculus) also provides a direct demonstration of the well-known result that although high electrical conductivity, sufficient to make R ≫ 1, is a necessary condition for hydromagnetic dynamo action, such action is impossible in a perfect conductor, when R→ ∞.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: