The Search for a Primordial Magnetic Field

Abstract

Magnetic fields appear wherever plasma and currents can be found. As such, they thread through all scales in Nature. It is natural, therefore, to suppose that magnetic fields might have been formed within the high temperature environments of the big bang. Such a primordial magnetic field (PMF) would be expected to arise from and/or influence a variety of cosmological phenomena such as inflation, cosmic phase transitions, big bang nucleosynthesis, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies, the cosmic gravity wave background, and the formation of large-scale structure. In this review, we summarize the development of theoretical models for analyzing the observational consequences of a PMF. We also summarize the current state of the art in the search for observational evidence of a PMF. In particular we review the framework needed to calculate the effects of a PMF power spectrum on the CMB and the development of large scale structure. We summarize the current constraints on the PMF amplitude $B_{\lambda }$ and the power spectral index $n_B$ and discuss prospects for better determining these quantities in the near future.

40 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for Physics Reports 23 Feb 2012. Available online 3 March 2012. In press, corrected proof

References in corpus (74)

• Seven-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Power-spectrum analysis of the final dataset and cosmological implications
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Likelihoods and Parameters from the WMAP data
• Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• Three Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis
• Gravitational Wave Experiments and Early Universe Cosmology
• Massive neutrinos and cosmology
• Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Temperature Analysis
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Tests of Gaussianity
• A New Radio - X-Ray Probe of Galaxy Cluster Magnetic Fields
• Magnetic Field in Clusters of Galaxies
• Primordial Magnetic Fields, Right Electrons, and the Abelian Anomaly
• New BBN limits on Physics Beyond the Standard Model from He4
• An Upper Limit on the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background of Cosmological Origin
• Primordial magnetogenesis
• The Evolution of Cosmic Magnetic Fields: From the Very Early Universe, to Recombination, to the Present
• Neutrino mass limit from tritium beta decay
• Damping of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• Magnetohydrodynamics in the Early Universe and the Damping of Non-linear Alfven Waves
• A Measurement of the Angular Power Spectrum of the CMB Temperature Anisotropy from the 2003 Flight of Boomerang
• Microwave Background Signatures of a Primordial Stochastic Magnetic Field
• Magnetic Fields Produced by Phase Transition Bubbles in the Electroweak Phase Transition
• Microwave Background Signals from Tangled Magnetic Fields
• Cosmic Microwave Background Fluctuations from Gravitational Waves: An Analytic Approach
• A new upper limit on the total neutrino mass from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
• CMB anisotropies from primordial inhomogeneous magnetic fields
• Gravitational wave production: A strong constraint on primordial magnetic fields
• Cosmological Magnetic Field: a fossil of density perturbations in the early universe
• A Faraday Rotation Search for Magnetic Fields in Large Scale Structure
• Phase equilibration in bubble collisions
• Magnetic field generation from cosmological perturbations
• Implications of the Cosmic Background Imager Polarization Data
• Effects of Cosmological Magnetic Helicity on the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Signals from Tangled Magnetic Fields
• Magnetic field generation in first order phase transition bubble collisions
• The full contribution of a stochastic background of magnetic fields to CMB anisotropies
• CMB bispectrum from primordial magnetic fields on large angular scales
• The cosmic microwave background temperature bispectrum from scalar perturbations induced by primordial magnetic fields
• Improved Measurements of the CMB Power Spectrum with ACBAR
• Small-scale microwave background anisotropies due to tangled primordial magnetic fields
• Large-scale magnetic fields from dilaton inflation in noncommutative spacetime
• Effects of a Primordial Magnetic Field on Low and High Multipoles of the CMB
• CMB Temperature Anisotropy from Broken Spatial Isotropy due to an Homogeneous Cosmological Magnetic Field
• Primordial magnetic field limits from cosmological data
• The Impact of Stochastic Primordial Magnetic Fields on the Scalar Contribution to Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies
• Non-Gaussianity from Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• New Constraints on the Primordial Magnetic Field
• Biermann Mechanism in Primordial Supernova Remnant and Seed Magnetic Fields
• Faraday rotation, stochastic magnetic fields and CMB maps
• Constraints on the Evolution of the Primordial Magnetic Field from the Small-Scale Cosmic Microwave Background Angular Anisotropy
• Primordial Magnetic Field Limits from Cosmic Microwave Background Bispectrum of Magnetic Passive Scalar Modes
• CMB anisotropies due to cosmological magnetosonic waves
• Tight coupling expansion and fully inhomogeneous magnetic fields
• Probing Primordial Magnetic Fields with the 21cm Fluctuations
• Primordial magnetic fields and formation of molecular hydrogen
• Constraining the Primordial Magnetic Field from Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies at Higher Multipoles
• Cosmic microwave background bispectrum of tensor passive modes induced from primordial magnetic fields
• Effect of Primordial Magnetic Field on Seeds for Large Scale Structure
• Evolution of Small Scale Cosmological Baryon Perturbations and Matter Transfer Functions
• An improved limit on the neutrino mass with CMB and redshift-dependent halo bias-mass relations from SDSS, DEEP2, and Lyman-Break Galaxies
• Large Scale Magnetic Fields: Galaxy Two-Point correlation function
• Constraints on the Primordial Magnetic Field from ${\sigma }_8$
• Tangled magnetic fields and CMBR signal from reionization epoch
• Primordial Magnetic Field Effects on the CMB and Large Scale Structure
• Constraints on the neutrino mass and the primordial magnetic field from the matter density fluctuation parameter ${\sigma }_8$
• Neutrino mass effects on vector and tensor CMB anisotropies in the presence of a primordial magnetic field
• New Primordial-Magnetic-Field Limit from The Latest LIGO S5 data
• Normalization of the Matter Power Spectrum via Higher-Order Angular Correlations of Luminous Red Galaxies
• Cosmic microwave background polarization analysis
• Neutrino Masses from Cosmological Probes in Interacting Neutrino Dark-Energy Models

Cited by in corpus (50)

• Cosmological Magnetic Fields: Their Generation, Evolution and Observation
• Primordial Magnetic Fields from the Post-Inflationary Universe
• Intergalactic Magnetic Fields from First-Order Phase Transitions
• Consistency relation for cosmic magnetic fields
• On the non-Gaussian correlation of the primordial curvature perturbation with vector fields
• Magnetic field and gravitational waves from the first-order Phase Transition
• Intergalactic magnetic field spectra from diffuse gamma rays
• Evolution of inflation-generated magnetic field through phase transitions
• Critical constraint on inflationary magnetogenesis
• Cosmic Magnetism in Centimeter and Meter Wavelength Radio Astronomy
• Constraints on Gauge Field Production during Inflation
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with an Inhomogeneous Primordial Magnetic Field Strength
• Magnetic fields from inflation: The CMB temperature anisotropies
• Introduction to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Modern Cosmology
• Cosmological solutions to the Lithium problem: Big-bang nucleosynthesis with photon cooling, $X$-particle decay and a primordial magnetic field
• On the propagation of gravitational waves in strong magnetic fields
• Effects of power law primordial magnetic field on big bang nucleosynthesis
• Constraining Primordial Magnetic Fields with Future Cosmic Shear Surveys
• Baryon isocurvature constraints on the primordial hypermagnetic fields
• The primordial magnetic field in our cosmic backyard
• Magnetic field generation from bubble collisions during first-order phase transition
• Generation of large-scale magnetic fields, non-Gaussianity, and primordial gravitational waves in inflationary cosmology
• Magnetogenesis in bouncing cosmology
• CMB distortion anisotropies due to the decay of primordial magnetic fields
• Magnetic field generation from primordial black hole distributions
• Primordial magnetic field and kinetic theory with Berry curvature
• The Effect of Cosmic Magnetic Fields on the Metagalactic Ionization Background inferred from the Lyman-α Forest
• Constraining Primordial Magnetic Fields by CMB Photon-Graviton Conversion
• CMB with the background primordial magnetic field
• Axially magnetized Dark Energy cosmological model
• Cosmic magnetization in curved and Lorentz violating space-times
• Warm inflation in the presence of magnetic fields
• Generation of magnetic fields in Einstein-Aether gravity
• Screening corrections to Electron Capture Rates and resulting constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields
• 21cm fluctuations from primordial magnetic fields
• Model of inflationary magnetogenesis
• The influence of primordial magnetic fields on the spherical collapse model in cosmology
• Evolution of the cosmic matter density field with a primordial magnetic field
• Primordial black holes induced stochastic axion-photon oscillations in primordial magnetic field
• Constraints on the multi-lognormal magnetic fields from the observations of the cosmic microwave background and the matter power spectrum
• Progress in Nuclear Astrophysics of East and Southeast Asia
• Scale-dependent bias due to primordial vector fields
• Charge asymmetry from CP-violating fermion scattering off bubble walls during the electroweak phase transition
• Impact of a primordial magnetic field on cosmic microwave background $B$ modes with weak lensing
• Primordial Magnetic Field Generated in Natural Infation
• Magnetic Effect on Potential Barrier for Nucleosynthesis II
• Cosmic Neutrino Background as a Ferromagnet
• $\alpha$ Effect and Magnetic Diffusivity $\beta$ in Helical Plasma under Turbulence Growth
• Imprints of Dark Photons on Gravitational Wave Polarizations
• Primordial magnetic fields in the $f^{2}FF$ model in large field inflation under de Sitter and power law expansion