What drives a cyclic dynamo in a solar-like star with anti-solar differential rotation?

Global and semi-global convective dynamo simulations of solar-like stars are known to show a transition from an anti-solar (fast poles, slow equator) to solar-like (fast equator, slow poles) differential rotation for increasing rotation rate. The dynamo solutions in the latter regime can exhibit regular cyclic modes, whereas in the former regime such cyclic solutions have not been obtained so far. In this paper we present a semi-global dynamo simulation, which for the first time produces clear cyclic magnetic activity in the anti-solar differential rotation regime. We analyze the large-scale flow properties (differential rotation and meridional circulation) together with the turbulent transport coefficients obtained with the test-field method. We find that turbulent dynamo effects play an important role in the dynamics of the system as effective large-scale flows are significantly altered by turbulent pumping. Neither an $alphaOmega$ dynamo wave nor advection-dominated dynamo are able to explain the cycle period and the propagation direction of the mean magnetic field. Furthermore, we find that the $alpha$ effect is comparable or even larger than the $Omega$ effect in generating the toroidal magnetic field and therefore the dynamo seems to be $alpha^2Omega$ or $alpha^2$ type.