Parker dynamo wave
= Parker dynamo wave
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A Parker dynamo wave is a traveling or oscillatory mode of a mean-field dynamo coupling poloidal and toroidal magnetic-field components through an <alpha effect> and shear. A reduced complex-amplitude model can represent fluctuating alpha by a time-dependent coupling. Its periodically switched growth must be calculated from the <monodromy matrix of a periodic linear system>, rather than by averaging noncommuting generators.