2006/01/06 by Kiyotomo Ichiki, Keitaro Takahashi, Hiroshi Ohno +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1120690
published as Science, Volume 311, Issue 5762, pp. 827-829 (2006) · 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
openalex publication_date 2006/01/06 · arxiv created 2006/03/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
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.