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.

arXiv comment11 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

References in corpus (15)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Preliminary Maps and Basic Results
• Origin of Galactic and Extragalactic Magnetic Fields
• The Protogalactic Origin for Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• Generation of the Primordial Magnetic Fields during Cosmological Reionization
• Large-scale magnetic fields from inflation in dilaton electromagnetism
• Gravitational wave production: A strong constraint on primordial magnetic fields
• GeV and higher energy photon interactions in gamma-ray burst fireballs and surroundings
• Magnetic field generation from cosmological perturbations
• Relaxing the Bounds on Primordial Magnetic Seed Fields
• Large-scale magnetic fields from density perturbations
• Biermann Mechanism in Primordial Supernova Remnant and Seed Magnetic Fields
• Delayed GeV--TeV Photons from Gamma-Ray Bursts Producing High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Generation of large scale magnetic fields at recombination epoch
• Dissipation of Magnetic Flux in Primordial Gas Clouds
• Evolution of Small Scale Cosmological Baryon Perturbations and Matter Transfer Functions

Cited by in corpus (112)

• The Mass Spectrum of the First Stars
• The First Magnetic Fields
• Planck 2015 results. XIX. Constraints on primordial magnetic fields
• Large-scale magnetic fields in the inflationary universe
• Can slow roll inflation induce relevant helical magnetic fields?
• Magnetic field production during preheating at the electroweak scale
• The Formation of Population III Stars in Gas Accretion Stage: Effects of Magnetic Fields
• Probing Intergalactic Magnetic Fields in the GLAST Era through Pair Echo Emission from TeV Blazars
• Lower Bounds on Intergalactic Magnetic Fields from Simultaneously Observed GeV-TeV Light Curves of the Blazar Mrk 501
• Lower Bounds on Magnetic Fields in Intergalactic Voids from Long-Term GeV-TeV Light Curves of the Blazar Mrk 421
• The importance of magnetic fields for the initial mass function of the first stars
• Resistive Magnetic Field Generation at Cosmic Dawn
• Generation of Primordial Magnetic Fields on Linear Over-density Scales
• New Constraints on the Primordial Magnetic Field
• Conditions for the Formation of First-Star Binaries
• The Search for a Primordial Magnetic Field
• 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
• The cosmological background of vector modes
• 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
• Vorticity generation at second order in cosmological perturbation theory
• Generic estimates for magnetic fields generated during inflation including Dirac-Born-Infeld theories
• 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
• Metric perturbation from inflationary magnetic field and generic bound on inflation models
• The interrelation between the generation of large-scale electric fields and that of large-scale magnetic fields during inflation
• Cosmic Magnetism in Centimeter and Meter Wavelength Radio Astronomy
• Generation of Seed Magnetic Field around First Stars: the Biermann Battery Effect
• Cosmological magnetic fields from inflation in extended electromagnetism
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with an Inhomogeneous Primordial Magnetic Field Strength
• Primordial magnetic fields from second-order cosmological perturbations: Tight coupling approximation
• Generation of Seed Magnetic Field around First Stars:Effects of Radiation Force
• Acoustic signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background bispectrum from primordial magnetic fields
• Using rotation measure grids to detect cosmological magnetic fields -- a Bayesian approach
• Probing Early Cosmic Magnetic Fields through Pair Echos from High-Redshift GRBs
• Fisher Analysis on Wide-Band Polarimetry for Probing the Intergalactic Magnetic Field
• Primordial black holes as seeds of magnetic fields in the universe
• Property of the spectrum of large-scale magnetic fields from inflation
• Can cosmological perturbations produce early universe vorticity?
• Possible Effects of Pair Echoes on Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Emission
• Current and Future Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Primordial magnetic field generation via primordial black hole disks
• Cosmological Structure Formation Creates Large-Scale Magnetic Fields
• Polarization bispectrum for measuring primordial magnetic fields
• Exploring the Intergalactic Magnetic Field by Means of Faraday Tomography
• Weak lensing generated by vector perturbations and detectability of cosmic strings
• Magnetic field spectrum at cosmological recombination revisited
• Constraint on the primordial vector mode and its magnetic field generation from seven-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Observations
• Primordial magnetic field from non-inflationary cosmic expansion in Horava-Lifshitz gravity
• Limits on primordial magnetic fields from direct detection experiments of gravitational wave background
• Constraints on the Primordial Magnetic Field from ${\sigma }_8$
• Generation of large-scale magnetic fields, non-Gaussianity, and primordial gravitational waves in inflationary cosmology
• CMB power spectra induced by primordial cross-bispectra between metric perturbations and vector fields
• Primordial magnetic fields in Population III star formation: a magnetised resolution study
• Magnetohydrodynamic effect on first star formation: prestellar core collapse and protostar formation
• Primordial Magnetic Field Effects on the CMB and Large Scale Structure
• Dark energy, non-minimal couplings and the origin of cosmic magnetic fields
• The Origin of Magnetic Fields in Galaxies
• Creation of cosmological magnetic fields in a bouncing cosmology
• Exponentially amplified magnetic field eliminates disk fragmentation around the Population III protostar
• Axion driven cosmic magneto-genesis during the QCD crossover
• Constraints on the neutrino mass and the primordial magnetic field from the matter density fluctuation parameter ${\sigma }_8$
• Intrinsic Bispectra of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• Generation of large-scale magnetic fields from inflation in teleparallelism
• Signatures of Cosmic Ray Heating in 21-cm Observables
• Cosmological Simulations using GCMHD+
• Probing the Early Universe with the CMB Scalar, Vector and Tensor Bispectrum
• Computation approach for CMB bispectrum from primordial magnetic fields
• Chemical separation of primordial Li${}^{+}$ during structure formation caused by nanogauss magnetic field
• Electromagnetic Properties of the Early Universe
• Generation of Magnetic Field on the Accretion Disk around a Proto-First-Star
• A precise numerical estimation of the magnetic field generated around recombination
• Evolution of Magnetic Fields in Collapsing Star-forming Clouds under Different Environments
• Suppression of small baryonic structures due to a primordial magnetic field
• CMB with the background primordial magnetic field
• Generation of magnetic fields in Einstein-Aether gravity
• Bow Ties in the Sky II: Searching for Gamma-ray Halos in the Fermi Sky Using Anisotropy
• Screening corrections to Electron Capture Rates and resulting constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Primordial magnetic fields with X-ray and S-Z cluster survey
• On inhomogeneous magnetic seed fields and gravitational waves within the MHD limit
• The Music of the Aetherwave - B-mode Polarization in Einstein-Aether Theory
• Constraints on the Intergalactic Magnetic Field from Bow Ties in the Gamma-ray Sky
• 21cm fluctuations from primordial magnetic fields
• An upper limit on primordial magnetic fields from ultra-faint dwarf galaxies
• A new probe of magnetic fields in the pre-reionization epoch: II. Detectability
• The influence of primordial magnetic fields on the spherical collapse model in cosmology
• Gauge-Invariant Tensor Perturbations Induced from Baryon-CDM Relative Velocity and the B-mode Polarization of the CMB
• Effects of a primordial magnetic field with log-normal distribution on the cosmic microwave background
• Large-scale magnetic fields from inflation due to a $CPT$-even Chern-Simons-like term with Kalb-Ramond and scalar fields
• Constraints on the multi-lognormal magnetic fields from the observations of the cosmic microwave background and the matter power spectrum
• Star Formation in Relic HII Regions of the First Stars: Binarity and Outflow Driving
• Interactions of cosmological gravitational waves and magnetic fields
• Introduction to Faraday tomography and its future prospects
• Revisiting primordial magnetic fields through 21-cm physics: Bounds and forecasts
• Random Primordial Magnetic Fields and the Gas Content of Dark Matter Halos
• Cosmological Perturbations: Vorticity, Isocurvature and Magnetic Fields
• Observable cosmological vector mode in the dark ages
• Biermann Battery Powered by Resistive Heating Induced by Cosmic Ray Streaming
• Magnetogenesis from isocurvature initial conditions
• A Cautionary Note on Cosmological Magnetic Fields
• Effect of Magnetic Field Dissipation on Primordial Li Abundance
• A non-perturbative study of the evolution of cosmic magnetised sources
• Polarization Properties of the Electromagnetic Response to High-frequency Gravitational Wave
• Cosmic Electromagnetic Fields due to Perturbations in the Gravitational Field
• Unplugging the Universe: the neglected electromagnetic consequence of decoupling
• Primordial magnetogenesis before recombination
• Can thermal input from a prior universe account for relic graviton production?
• Primordial Magnetogenesis from Killing Vector Fields
• Exploring the Voids: Luminosity Functions and Magnetic Field