Constraining Primordial Magnetic Fields with Future Cosmic Shear Surveys

Abstract

The origin of astrophysical magnetic fields observed in galaxies and clusters of galaxies is still unclear. One possibility is that primordial magnetic fields generated in the early Universe provide seeds that grow through compression and turbulence during structure formation. A cosmological magnetic field present prior to recombination would produce substantial matter clustering at intermediate/small scales, on top of the standard inflationary power spectrum. In this work we study the effect of this alteration on one particular cosmological observable, cosmic shear. We adopt the semi-analytic halo model in order to describe the non-linear clustering of matter, and feed it with the altered mass variance induced by primordial magnetic fields. We find that the convergence power spectrum is, as expected, substantially enhanced at intermediate/small angular scales, with the exact amplitude of the enhancement depending on the magnitude and power-law index of the magnetic field power spectrum. We use the predicted statistical errors for a future wide-field cosmic shear survey, on the model of the ESA Cosmic Vision mission \emph{Euclid}, in order to forecast constraints on the amplitude of primordial magnetic fields as a function of the spectral index. We find that the amplitude will be constrained at the level of $\sim 0.1$ nG for $n_B\sim -3$, and at the level of $\sim 10^{-7}$ nG for $n_B\sim 3$. The latter is at the same level of lower bounds coming from the secondary emission of gamma-ray sources, implying that for high spectral indices \emph{Euclid} will certainly be able to detect primordial magnetic fields, if they exist. The present study shows how large-scale structure surveys can be used for both understanding the origins of astrophysical magnetic fields and shedding new light on the physics of the pre-recombination Universe. (abridged)

24 pages, 9 figures. To appear on JCAP

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Cited by in corpus (24)

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• Constraining primordial magnetic fields through large scale structure
• Constraints on primordial magnetic fields from magnetically-induced perturbations: current status and future perspectives with LiteBIRD and future ground based experiments
• Insight into primordial magnetic fields from 21-cm line observation with EDGES experiment
• Evolution of primordial magnetic fields during large-scale structure formation
• Simulations and observational tests of primordial magnetic fields from Cosmic Microwave Background constraints
• Duality and scale invariant magnetic fields from bouncing universes
• Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields from their impact on the ionization history with Planck 2018
• Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the intergalactic medium with primordial magnetic fields
• Primordial Density Perturbations from Magnetic Fields
• Magnification bias as a novel probe for primordial magnetic fields
• Limits on primordial magnetic fields from primordial black hole abundance
• Generation of magnetic fields in Einstein-Aether gravity
• Probing the primordial Universe with 21-cm line from cosmic dawn/epoch of reionization
• LiteBIRD Science Goals and Forecasts: Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Imprints of primordial magnetic fields on intrinsic alignments of galaxies
• Evolution of the cosmic matter density field with a primordial magnetic field
• The influence of primordial magnetic fields on the spherical collapse model in cosmology
• Inflationary and phase-transitional primordial magnetic fields in galaxy clusters
• Detectable Data-driven Features in the Primordial Scalar Power Spectrum
• Matter power spectrum induced by primordial magnetic fields: from the linear to the non-linear regime
• Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields from High Redshift Stellar Mass Density
• Can WIMPs Survive the Legacy of a Magnetised Early Universe?
• Density perturbation and cosmological evolution in the presence of magnetic field in $f(R)$ gravity models