Cosmological magnetic field: a fossil of density perturbations in the early universe |
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Authors: | Ichiki Kiyotomo Takahashi Keitaro Ohno Hiroshi Hanayama Hidekazu Sugiyama Naoshi |
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Affiliation: | National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan. ichiki@th.nao.ac.jp |
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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 kiloparsecs). These fields are large enough to seed magnetic fields in galaxies and may therefore have affected primordial star formation in the early universe. |
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