We study the dynamo instability for a Kazantsev–Kraichnan flow with three velocity components that depend only on two dimensions $\boldsymbol{u}=(u(x,y,t),v(x,y,t),w(x,y,t))$ often referred to as 2.5-dimensional (2.5-D) flow. Within the Kazantsev–Kraichnan framework we derive the governing equations for the second-order magnetic field correlation function and examine the growth rate of the dynamo instability as a function of the control parameters of the system. In particular we investigate the dynamo behaviour for large magnetic Reynolds numbers $Rm$ and flows close to being two-dimensional and show that these two limiting procedures do not commute. The energy spectra of the unstable modes are derived analytically and lead to power-law behaviour that differs from the three-dimensional and two-dimensional cases. The results of our analytical calculation are compared with the results of numerical simulations of dynamos driven by prescribed fluctuating flows as well as freely evolving turbulent flows, showing good agreement.

We study the linear stage of the dynamo instability of a turbulent two-dimensional flow with three components $(u(x,y,t),v(x,y,t),w(x,y,t))$ that is sometimes referred to as a 2.5-dimensional (2.5-D) flow. The flow evolves based on the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations in the presence of a large-scale drag force that leads to the steady state of a turbulent inverse cascade. These flows provide an approximation to very fast rotating flows often observed in nature. The low dimensionality of the system allows for the realization of a large number of numerical simulations and thus the investigation of a wide range of fluid Reynolds numbers $Re$ , magnetic Reynolds numbers $Rm$ and forcing length scales. This allows for the examination of dynamo properties at different limits that cannot be achieved with three-dimensional simulations. We examine dynamos for both large and small magnetic Prandtl-number turbulent flows $Pm=Rm/Re$ , close to and away from the dynamo onset, as well as dynamos in the presence of scale separation. In particular, we determine the properties of the dynamo onset as a function of $Re$ and the asymptotic behaviour in the large $Rm$ limit. We are thus able to give a complete description of the dynamo properties of these turbulent 2.5-D flows.