The Biermann battery driven by a streaming plasma
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2021-04-21 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Plasma Physics
Abstract
The Biermann battery is a promising generation mechanism of a seed magnetic field in the universe. We propose a new driving mechanism for the Biermann battery in an inhomogeneous plasma with a beam component. An inhomogeneous electron flow induced by the return current can make an electron pressure gradient which is not parallel to the density gradient. As a result, the magnetic field is generated by the Biermann battery. We demonstrate the new generation mechanism of the magnetic field by conducting three-fluid plasma simulations. By this mechanism, the first cosmic rays can generate the seed magnetic field with astrophysical scales at redshift around 20.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.01388,
title = {The Biermann battery driven by a streaming plasma},
author = {Yutaka Ohira},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.01388},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ