The universe’s first magnetic fields were ‘comparable’ to the human brain — and still linger within the ‘cosmic web’
The first magnetic fields of the universe may have been much lower than we imagined – and were almost equivalent to the force of magnetic activity inside the human brainAccording to a new study.
The researchers used hundreds of thousands of computer simulations to examine the remains of these old magnetic fields, which always reside in “Cosmic web“Billions of years later.
Magnetism is a natural force generated by the movements of electrical loads and has existed since the first days after Big BangWhen the infant’s universe was full of electrically loaded particles. Experts long suspect that the initial magnetic fields created by these particles, called primordial magnetic fields, were much lower than those created by complex cosmic objects that exist today, like stars, black holes And planets.
But in the new study, published on August 13 in the journal Physical examination lettersThe researchers revealed that these primordial fields may have been even lower than they imagined before. Using exhaustive computer simulations, the team forced a limit higher than the magnetic force of these fields and found that it was probably maximum at 0.0000,000,000,0002 Gauss, which is billion times lower than a standard refrigerator magnet (~ 100 Gauss).
Such magnetic fields are “comparable to magnetism generated by [the electrical activity of] neurons in the human brain, “wrote researchers in a statement.
Despite their weakness, the remains of these magnetic fields always reside in the intergalactic cosmic canvas – a mysterious and sprawling structure which permeates the entire known universe – and this was essential to discover the new discoveries.
In relation: Scientists share the revolutionary image of the “cosmic web” connecting 2 galaxies near the Dawn of Time
The Cosmic web is a large network of ghostly filaments that Connect all the galaxies in the universe Like a giant Spider 3D web. There are still a lot of things that we don’t know on the Cosmic web, including what it really is. However, in recent years, scientists have started to properly imagine this gigantic structure and have started to draw it in detail.
One of the greatest mysteries of the Cosmic web is the reason why it has its own magnetic fields. This is particularly confusing in the space regions between the galaxies, where the web is isolated in large stretches of nothingness.
“Our hypothesis was that this [magnetism] This could be an inheritance of events that occurred in cosmic eras during the birth of the universe “, the main author of the study Mak PavičevićA doctoral student at the International School for Advanced Studies (Sissa) in Trieste, Italy, and co-author Matteo VielAn astrophysicist in Sissa, said jointly in the press release. “This is what we tried to check with our work.”
Their team believes that the first primordial magnetic fields could have been taken in the initial inflation of the universe and later intertwined with the cosmic canvas as it grew in expanding spaces between the galaxies.
In the study, the researchers used around 250,000 computer simulations, based on observation data of the cosmic canvas, for insane this series of supposed events, allowing them to fix “strict limits on the intensity of the magnetic fields formed in the very first moments of the universe”, said Pavičević and Viel.
These results are always theoretical because there is currently no way to directly observe the primordial magnetic fields. However, researchers claim that the results align with recent results concerning the Cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is the remaining radiation of the Big Bang, although it is not clear of what specific results to which they refer.
The study team also notes that continuous observations of the Cosmic web with the James Webb space telescope (JWST) could allow them to create more powerful simulations to further test their hypothesis in the future.
