Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Magnetic fields of planets are known to be generated by the homogeneous dynamo effect in moving liquid metals, such as iron or metallic hydrogen. For a long time, hydromagnetic dynamos have been the subject of purely theoretical and numerical research. This situation changed in 1999 when the threshold of magnetic-field self-excitation was crossed in the two large-scale liquid sodium experiments in Riga and Karlsruhe. Since 2006, the VKS dynamo experiment in Cadarache has successfully reproduced key processes of geophysical interest such as reversals and excursions. Further liquid metal experiments in Grenoble, Madison, Maryland, Perm, Princeton, Perm, Queretaro, and Socorro have contributed important findings to dynamo research. After giving an overview about those recent achievements, the talk will delineate the present status of the DRESDYN precession experiment at HZDR. A few further issues connected with the experimental demonstration of magnetically triggered flow instabilities, such as magnetorotational and Tayler instability, are also discussed.