There is a minor operator misprint to resolve first. Interpreting as composition, the Cartesian formula for the angular Laplacian is
The last term is missing from the printed Cartesian expression. For example, its truncated expression maps to , whereas a degree-one spherical harmonic must have angular eigenvalue two. In what follows, use the stated angular spectrum and the supplied poloidal-energy identity; these are consistent with the corrected operator.
The divergence theorem and the solenoidal magnetic-field constraint imply zero magnetic flux through every sphere. Consequently has zero angular mean and no component. Expand in orthonormal spherical harmonics:
By angular orthogonality, with
the gradient norm and the supplied poloidal-toroidal decomposition identity become
Since , this proves the poloidal magnetic energy bound by the radial scalar gradient:
Equality holds when the radial scalar contains only degree-one angular components.
Define the poloidal and total magnetic energies by and . Combining the radial-flow dynamo energy bound with gives the necessary condition
It has the same temporal interpretation as the bound in the preceding part; statistically steady versions use the corresponding time-averaged energies. It quantifies why dynamo action with a substantial poloidal fraction requires radial motion, while a purely tangential flow has .
Put and . The plane-layer poloidal-toroidal decomposition supplies the assumed poloidal fields as
Since and , potentials proportional to have the required vertical components. Their horizontal components are proportional to , satisfying the stress-free boundary conditions and the horizontal-field boundary conditions. The double-curl representation automatically enforces incompressibility and the solenoidal magnetic-field constraint.
Let be the amplitudes of . The temperature and resistive induction equations immediately give
Eliminate the total-pressure perturbation by applying to the vertical momentum equation and subtracting times its divergence. The resulting vertical equation is
In particular, shows explicitly that magnetic tension opposes the displacement.
Taking the determinant of these three amplitude equations gives the horizontal-field magnetoconvection dispersion relation:
This cubic polynomial includes all roots of the assumed poloidal coupled system; using its determinant form avoids discarding possible roots by dividing by or . As a check, factors off magnetic diffusion and leaves the standard stress-free Rayleigh-Bénard convection growth equation.
For an isolated solenoidal magnetic field, zero flux through every sphere removes the degree-zero spherical harmonic of . In a poloidal-toroidal decomposition, let . The spherical poloidal component obeys
If , put . The two sides of the bound are respectively and . Since , the bound follows, with equality for degree-one radial scalars. Together with the radial-flow dynamo energy bound it gives for a marginal or growing dynamo field.
// Target: fluid-mechanics.bigb
A spherical poloidal-toroidal decomposition represents a solenoidal vector field with zero flux through each sphere by scalar potentials . The second term is tangent to concentric spheres; the first carries the radial component. Requiring zero angular means for the potentials fixes their otherwise irrelevant radial additions. In a plane layer, the analogous fluctuating components are and , with any horizontally uniform components handled separately. These constructions enforce the divergence-free condition because the divergence of a curl vanishes.
// Target: fluid-mechanics.bigb