Cosmological Magnetic Field: a fossil of density perturbations in the early universe

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 kiloparsecpc). These fields are large enough to seed magnetic fields in galaxies and may therefore have affected primordial star formation in the early universe.Comment: 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/311/5762/82

A Comparison of Properties of Quasars with and without Rapid Broad Absorption Line Variability

We investigate the correlation between rest-frame UV flux variability of broad absorption line (BAL) quasars and their variability in BAL equivalent widths (EWs) in a various timescale from $<10$~days to a few years in the quasar rest-frame. We use the data sets of BAL EWs taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project and photometric data taken by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) in $g$ and $R$-bands and the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in $grizy$ bands. Our results are summarized as below; (1) the distributions of flux variability versus BAL variability show weak, moderate, or a strong positive correlation, (2) there is no significant difference in flux variability amplitudes between BAL quasar with significant short timescale EW variability (called class S1) and without (class S2), (3) in all time scales considered in this paper, the class S1 quasars show systematically larger BAL variability amplitudes than those of the class S2 quasars, and (4) there are possible correlations between BAL variability and physical parameters of the quasars such as black hole masses (moderate positive), Eddington ratios, and accretion disk temperature (strong negative) in the class S2 quasars. These results indicate that the BAL variability requires changing in the ionizing continuum and an ancillary mechanism such as variability in X-ray shielding gas located at the innermost region of an accretion disk.Comment: 22 page

Biermann Mechanism in Primordial Supernova Remnant and Seed Magnetic Fields

We study generation of magnetic fields by the Biermann mechanism in the pair-instability supernovae explosions of first stars. The Biermann mechanism produces magnetic fields in the shocked region between the bubble and interstellar medium (ISM), even if magnetic fields are absent initially. We perform a series of two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with the Biermann term and estimate the amplitude and total energy of the produced magnetic fields. We find that magnetic fields with amplitude $10^{-14}-10^{-17}$ G are generated inside the bubble, though the amount of magnetic fields generated depend on specific values of initial conditions. This corresponds to magnetic fields of $10^{28}-10^{31}$ erg per each supernova remnant, which is strong enough to be the seed magnetic field for galactic and/or interstellar dynamo.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Effect of Primordial Magnetic Field on Seeds for Large Scale Structure

Magnetic field plays a very important role in many astronomical phenomena at various scales of the universe. It is no exception in the early universe. Since the energy density, pressure, and tension of the primordial magnetic field affect gravitational collapses of plasma, the formation of seeds for large scale structures should be influenced by them. Here we numerically investigate the effects of stochastic primordial magnetic field on the seeds of large scale structures in the universe in detail. We found that the amplitude ratio between the density spectra with and without PMF ($|P(k)/P_0(k)|$ at $k>0.2$ Mpc$^{-1}$) lies between 75% and 130% at present for the range of PMF strengths 0.5 nG $< B_\lambda < 1.0$ nG, depending on the spectral index of PMF and the correlation between the matter density and the PMF distributions.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRD 23 Jan 2006, Revised 02 Oct 2006, accepted for publication in PR