English

Seed Magnetic Fields Generated by Primordial Supernova Explosions

Astrophysics 2009-10-30 v1

Abstract

The origin of the magnetic field in galaxies is an open question in astrophysics. Several mechanisms have been proposed related, in general, with the generation of small seed fields amplified by a dynamo mechanism. In general, these mechanisms have difficulty in satisfying both the requirements of a sufficiently high strength for the magnetic field and the necessary large coherent scales. We show that the formation of dense and turbulent shells of matter, in the multiple explosion scenario of Miranda and Opher (1996, 1997) for the formation of the large-scale structures of the Universe, can naturally act as a seed for the generation of a magnetic field. During the collapse and explosion of Population III objects, a temperature gradient not parallel to a density gradient can naturally be established, producing a seed magnetic field through the Biermann battery mechanism. We show that seed magnetic fields 10121014G\sim 10^{-12}-10^{-14}G can be produced in this multiple explosion scenario on scales of the order of clusters of galaxies (with coherence length L1.8MpcL\sim 1.8Mpc) and up to 4.5×1010G\sim 4.5\times 10^{-10}G on scales of galaxies (L100kpcL\sim 100 kpc).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9808161,
  title  = {Seed Magnetic Fields Generated by Primordial Supernova Explosions},
  author = {O. D. Miranda and M. Opher and R. Opher},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9808161},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 5 pages (MN plain TeX macros v1.6 file). Also available at http://www.iagusp.usp.br/~oswaldo (click "OPTIONS" and then "ARTICLES")