We use the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy to place limits on large-scale magnetic fields in an inhomogeneous (perturbed Friedmann) universe. If no assumptions are made about the spacetime geometry, only a weak limit can be deduced directly from the CMB. In the special case where spatial inhomogeneity is neglected to first order, the upper limit is much stronger, i.e. a few nano-G
Magnetic fields are everywhere in nature and they play an important role in every astronomical environment which involves the formation of plasma and currents. It is natural therefore to suppose that magnetic fields could be present in the turbulent high temperature environment of the big bang. Such a primordial magnetic field (PMF) would be expected to manifest itself in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies, and also in the formation of large- scale structure. In this review we summarize the theoretical framework which we have developed to calculate the PMF power spectrum to high precision. Using this formulation, we summarize calculations of the effects of a PMF which take accurate quantitative account of the time evolution of the cut off scale. We review the constructed numerical program, which is without approximation, and an improvement over the approach used in a number of previous works for studying the effect of the PMF on the cosmological perturbations. We demonstrate how the PMF is an important cosmological physical process on small scales. We also summarize the current constraints on the PMF amplitude $B_lambda$ and the power spectral index $n_B$ which have been deduced from the available CMB observational data by using our computational framework.
We review spacetime dynamics in the presence of large-scale electromagnetic fields and then consider the effects of the magnetic component on perturbations to a spatially homogeneous and isotropic universe. Using covariant techniques, we refine and extend earlier work and provide the magnetohydrodynamic equations that describe inhomogeneous magnetic cosmologies in full general relativity. Specialising this system to perturbed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models, we examine the effects of the field on the expansion dynamics and on the growth of density inhomogeneities, including non-adiabatic modes. We look at scalar perturbations and obtain analytic solutions for their linear evolution in the radiation, dust and inflationary eras. In the dust case we also calculate the magnetic analogue of the Jeans length. We then consider the evolution of vector perturbations and find that the magnetic presence generally reduces the decay rate of these distortions. Finally, we examine the implications of magnetic fields for the evolution of cosmological gravitational waves.
We study the interaction of an electrically charged component of the dark matter with a magnetized galactic interstellar medium (ISM) of (rotating) spiral galaxies. For the observed ordered component of the field, $Bsim mu$G, we find that the accumulated Lorentz interactions between the charged particles and the ISM will extract an order unity fraction of the disk angular momentum over the few Gyr Galactic lifetime unless $q/e lesssim 10^{-13pm 1},m,c^2/$ GeV if all the dark matter is charged. The bound is weakened by factor $f_{rm qdm}^{-1/2}$ if only a mass fraction $f_{rm qdm}gtrsim0.13$ of the dark matter is charged. Here $q$ and $m$ are the dark matter particle mass and charge. If $f_{rm qdm}approx1$ this bound excludes charged dark matter produced via the freeze-in mechanism for $m lesssim$ TeV/$c^2$. This bound on $q/m$, obtained from Milky Way parameters, is rough and not based on any precise empirical test. However this bound is extremely strong and should motivate further work to better model the interaction of charged dark matter with ordered and disordered magnetic fields in galaxies and clusters of galaxies; to develop precise tests for the presence of charged dark matter based on better estimates of angular momentum exchange; and also to better understand how charged dark matter might modify the growth of magnetic fields, and the formation and interaction histories of galaxies, galaxy groups, and clusters.
Primordial magnetic field (PMF) is one of the feasible candidates to explain observed large-scale magnetic fields, for example, intergalactic magnetic fields. We present a new mechanism that brings us information about PMFs on small scales based on the abundance of primordial black holes (PBHs). The anisotropic stress of the PMFs can act as a source of the super-horizon curvature perturbation in the early universe. If the amplitude of PMFs is sufficiently large, the resultant density perturbation also has a large amplitude, and thereby, the PBH abundance is enhanced. Since the anisotropic stress of the PMFs is consist of the square of the magnetic fields, the statistics of the density perturbation follows the non-Gaussian distribution. Assuming Gaussian distributions and delta-function type power spectrum for PMFs, based on a Monte-Carlo method, we obtain an approximate probability density function of the density perturbation, and it is an important piece to relate the amplitude of PMFs with the abundance of PBHs. Finally, we place the strongest constraint on the amplitude of PMFs as a few hundred nano-Gauss on $10^{2};{rm Mpc}^{-1} leq kleq 10^{18};{rm Mpc}^{-1}$ where the typical cosmological observations never reach.
We simulate the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) induced by cosmic strings. By numerically evolving a network of cosmic strings we generate full-sky CMB temperature anisotropy maps. Based on $192$ maps, we compute the anisotropy power spectrum for multipole moments $ell le 20$. By comparing with the observed temperature anisotropy, we set the normalization for the cosmic string mass-per-unit-length $mu$, obtaining $Gmu/c^2=1.05 {}^{+0.35}_{-0.20} times10^{-6}$, which is consistent with all other observational constraints on cosmic strings. We demonstrate that the anisotropy pattern is consistent with a Gaussian random field on large angular scales.