Dynamo regimes and transitions in the VKS experiment

Abstract. The Von Kármán Sodium experiment yields a variety of dynamo regimes, when asymmetry is imparted to the flow by rotating impellers at different speed F1 and F2. We show that as the intensity of forcing, measured as F1+F2, is increased, the transition to a self-sustained magnetic field is always observed via a supercritical bifurcation to a stationary state. For some values of the asymmetry parameter θ = (F1–F2)/(F1+F2), time dependent dynamo regimes develop. They are observed either when the forcing is increased for a given value of asymmetry, or when the amount of asymmetry is varied at sufficiently high forcing. Two qualitatively different transitions between oscillatory and stationary regimes are reported, involving or not a strong divergence of the period of oscillations. These transitions can be interpreted using a low dimensional model based on the interactions of two dynamo modes.