English

What can we say about seed fields for galactic dynamos?

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2015-06-11 v1

Abstract

We demonstrate that a quasi-uniform cosmological seed field is a much less suitable seed for a galactic dynamo than has often been believed. The age of the Universe is insufficient for a conventional galactic dynamo to generate a contemporary galactic magnetic field starting from such a seed, accepting conventional estimates for physical quantities. We discuss modifications to the scenario for the evolution of galactic magnetic fields implied by this result. We also consider briefly the implications of a dynamo number that is significantly larger than that given by conventional estimates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1208.3666,
  title  = {What can we say about seed fields for galactic dynamos?},
  author = {Dmitri Sokoloff and David Moss},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.3666},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T21:52:18.597Z