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Published byDominic Crabtree Modified over 11 years ago
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Generation of Magnetic Fields in Gravitationally Forming Structures in the Early Universe Russell M. Kulsrud Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
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OUTLINE PROPERTIES OF OUR GALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELD STANDARD DISC DYNAMO THEORY PROTOGALACTIC ORIGIN
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OUR GALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELD The field is toroidal. Its strength is 2 microgauss. It varies in radius possibly changing every spiral arm or about one kiloparsec. It does not change in the direction perpendicular to the disc. Figure 1: The galactic magnetic field
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THE ALPHA-OMEGA DISC DYNAMO THEORY THE THEORY CONSERVES FLUX, SO TO WORK IT HAS TO EXPEL NEGATIVE FLUX THIS IS VERY DIFFICULT BECAUSE THE GALACTIC DISC IS IN A DEEP POTENTIAL WELL AND THE FLUX MUST CARRY MATTER OUT WITH IT Figure 2: The escape of negative flux in the Alpha- Omega dynamo.
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OTHER ORIGINS The Galaxy was originally a plasma in the form of a protogalaxy » 100kpc with a mass of 10 11 solar masses. It resulted from a gravitational collapse and smaller parts also suffered gravitational collapse creating many small shocks.
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Shocks Creating Turbulence These shocks produced vorticity, turbulence, weak magnetic fields (Biermann) and heating that led to the support of the protogalaxy against gravity.
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k
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The Magnetic Differential Equation
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The Solution
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B 0 =6£10 -6 gauss lnB/B0 lnk/k0
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CONCLUSION Magnetic Fields may have already been generated before our galaxy was fully formed due to plasma processes in the preceding protogalaxy. This may be a common phenomenon.
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