Origin of Galactic and Extragalactic Magnetic Fields

We review current ideas on the origin of galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields. We begin by summarizing observations of magnetic fields at cosmological redshifts and on cosmological scales. These observations translate into constraints on the strength and scale magnetic fields must have during the early stages of galaxy formation in order to seed the galactic dynamo. We examine mechanisms for the generation of magnetic fields that operate prior during inflation and durin...

Magnetic fields correlated on several kiloparsec scales are seen in spiral galaxies. Their origin could be due to the winding up of a primordial cosmological field or due to amplification of a small seed field by a turbulent galactic dynamo. Both options have difficulties: There is no known battery mechanism for producing the required primordial field. Equally the turbulent dynamo may self destruct before being able to produce the large scale field, due to excess generation o...

The explanation of the observed galactic magnetic fields may require the existence of a primordial magnetic field. Such a field may arise during the early cosmological phase transitions, or because of other particle physics related phenomena in the very early universe reviewed here. The turbulent evolution of the initial, randomly fluctuating microscopic field to a large-scale macroscopic field can be described in terms of a shell model, which provides an approximation to the...

Magnetic fields are observed on nearly all scales in the universe, from stars and galaxies upto galaxy clusters and even beyond. The origin of cosmic magnetic fields is still an open question, however a large class of models puts its origin in the very early universe. A magnetic dynamo amplifying an initial seed magnetic field could explain the present day strength of the galactic magnetic field. However, it is still an open problem how and when this initial magnetic field wa...

We review the observational and theoretical constraints on extragalactic magnetic fields across cosmic environment. In the next decade, the combination of sophisticated numerical simulations and various observational probes might succeed in constraining the still elusive origin of magnetic fields on the largest scales in the Universe.

Galaxies are observed to host magnetic fields with a typical total strength of around 15microgauss. A coherent large-scale field constitutes up to a few microgauss of the total, while the rest is built from strong magnetic fluctuations over a wide range of spatial scales. This represents sufficient magnetic energy for it to be dynamically significant. Several questions immediately arise: What is the physical mechanism that gives rise to such magnetic fields? How do these magn...

We discuss the evolution of cosmological magnetic fields from the early universe to the present. We review different scenarios for magnetogenesis in the early universe and follow the subsequent evolution of these fields as the universe recombines. We then focus on the role primordial fields play after recombination in the seeding of stellar and galactic fields and the formation of structure. Cosmological magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium trace the turbulent history ...

(abridged) The interpretation of Faraday rotation measure maps of AGNs within galaxy clusters has revealed regions, $\sim 50-100$ kpc, that are populated with large, $\sim 30 \mu$ G magnetic fields. The magnetic energy of these coherent regions is $\sim 10^{59-60}$ ergs, and the total magnetic energy over the whole cluster ($\sim 1$ Mpc across) is expected to be even larger. A sequence of physical processes that are responsible for the production, redistribution and dissipati...

The origin of magnetic fields in clusters of galaxies is still an unsolved problem, which is largely due to our poor understanding of initial seed magnetic fields. If the seed magnetic fields have primordial origins, it is likely that large-scale pervasive magnetic fields were present before the formation of the large-scale structure. On the other hand, if they were ejected from astrophysical bodies, they were highly localized in space at the time of injection. In this paper,...

Most of the visible matter in the Universe is ionized, so that cosmic magnetic fields are quite easy to generate and due to the lack of magnetic monopoles hard to destroy. Magnetic fields have been measured in or around practically all celestial objects, either by in-situ measurements of spacecrafts or by the electromagnetic radiation of embedded cosmic rays, gas, or dust. The Earth, the Sun, solar planets, stars, pulsars, the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, distant radio galaxie...