Cosmological Magnetic Field: a fossil of density perturbations in the early universe

Abstract

The origin of the substantial magnetic fields that are found in galaxies and on even larger scales, such as in clusters of galaxies, is yet unclear. If the second-order couplings between photons and electrons are considered, then cosmological density fluctuations, which explain the large scale structure of the universe, can also produce magnetic fields on cosmological scales before the epoch of recombination. By evaluating the power spectrum of these cosmological magnetic fields on a range of scales, we show here that magnetic fields of 10^{-18.1} gauss are generated at a 1 megaparsec scale and can be even stronger at smaller scales (10^{-14.1} gauss at 10 kiloparsecpc). These fields are large enough to seed magnetic fields in galaxies and may therefore have affected primordial star formation in the early universe.

11 pages, 3 figures, accepted draft for publication in Science. Edited version and supporting online material are available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/311/5762/827

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Large-scale magnetic fields in the inflationary universe
• Magnetic field production during preheating at the electroweak scale
• Conditions for the Formation of First-Star Binaries
• Magneto-Hydrodynamics of Population III Star Formation
• The First Jet in the Universe: Protostellar Jets from the First Stars
• Constraints on the Evolution of the Primordial Magnetic Field from the Small-Scale Cosmic Microwave Background Angular Anisotropy
• Probing the Nature of the Weakest Intergalactic Magnetic Fields with the High Energy Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Detectability of Pair Echos from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Intergalactic Magnetic Fields
• Impact of Cosmic Rays on Population III Star Formation
• Cosmological magnetic fields from nonlinear effects
• Large-scale magnetic fields from inflation due to Chern-Simons-like effective interaction
• The interrelation between the generation of large-scale electric fields and that of large-scale magnetic fields during inflation
• Primordial magnetic fields from second-order cosmological perturbations: Tight coupling approximation
• Property of the spectrum of large-scale magnetic fields from inflation
• Cosmological Structure Formation Creates Large-Scale Magnetic Fields
• Constraints on the Primordial Magnetic Field from ${\sigma }_8$
• Electromagnetic Properties of the Early Universe
• On inhomogeneous magnetic seed fields and gravitational waves within the MHD limit
• A Cautionary Note on Cosmological Magnetic Fields
• Unplugging the Universe: the neglected electromagnetic consequence of decoupling
• Can thermal input from a prior universe account for relic graviton production?