The Biermann Battery in Cosmological MHD Simulations of Population III Star Formation

Abstract

We report the results of the first self-consistent three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement magnetohydrodynamical simulations of Population III star formation including the Biermann Battery effect. We find that the Population III stars formed including this effect are both qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those from hydrodynamics-only (non-MHD) cosmological simulations. We observe peak magnetic fields of ~10^-9 G in the center of our star-forming halo at z ~ 17.55. The magnetic fields created by the Biermann Battery effect are predominantly formed early in the evolution of the primordial halo at low density and large spatial scales, and then grow through compression and by shear flows. The fields seen in this calculation are never large enough to be dynamically important (with beta >= 10^{15} at all times), and should be considered the minimum possible fields in existence during Population III star formation, and may be seed fields for the stellar dynamo or the magnetorotational instability at higher densities and smaller spatial scales.

4 pages, 3 figures; Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Comments welcome. Typo found (and fixed) in equation 1

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Cited by in corpus (22)

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• The influence of magnetic fields on the thermodynamics of primordial star formation
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• X-ray Background at High Redshifts from Pop III Remnants: Results from Pop III star formation rates in the Renaissance Simulations
• Formation of Massive and Wide First-star Binaries in Radiation Hydrodynamics Simulations
• Exploring the Intergalactic Magnetic Field by Means of Faraday Tomography
• The Biermann Catastrophe in Numerical MHD
• Magnetohydrodynamic effect on first star formation: prestellar core collapse and protostar formation
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• Magnetofluid Dynamics in curved spacetime
• A kiloparsec-scale ordered magnetic field in a galaxy at z=5.6
• Supermassive Star Formation in Magnetized Atomic-Cooling Gas Clouds: Enhanced Accretion, Intermittent Fragmentation, and Continuous Mergers
• First Star Formation in the Presence of Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Magnetic Effects Promote Supermassive Star Formation in Metal-enriched Atomic-cooling Halos
• Amplification of Magnetic Fields in a Primordial HII Region and Supernova
• The formation of the first galaxies and the transition to low-mass star formation
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