2007/12/20 by Massimo Giovannini, Kerstin E. Kunze · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Astrophysics #CMB cold spot #Computational physics #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Geometry #Isotropy #Magnetic field #Observable #Physics #Planck #Plasma #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Spectral density #Spectral line #Statistics #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.063003
published as Phys.Rev.D77:063003,2008 · 44 pages, 25 included eps figures
arxiv created 2007/12/20 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/13 · arxiv updated 2010/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Large-scale magnetic fields affect the scalar modes of the geometry whose ultimate effect is to determine the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB in what follows). For the first time, a consistent numerical approach to the magnetized CMB anisotropies is pursued with the aim of assessing the angular power spectra of temperature and polarization when the scalar modes of the geometry and a stochastic background of inhomogeneous magnetic fields are simultaneously present in the plasma. The effects related to the magnetized nature of the plasma are taken into account both at the level of the dynamical equations and at the level of the initial conditions of the Einstein-Boltzmann hierarchy. The temperature and polarization observables are exploited to infer the peculiar signatures of a pre-equality magnetic field. Using the extrapolated best fit to the three-year WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) data the increase and distortions of the first seven peaks in the temperature autocorrelations are monitored for different values of the regularized magnetic field intensity and for the physical range of spectral indices. Similar analyses are also conducted for the first few anticorrelation (and corrrelation) peaks of the temperature-polarization power spectra. Possible interesting degeneracies and stimulating perspectives are pointed out and explored.