Magneto-Fluid Dynamics Seminar

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The Pregalactic Origin for Galactic Magnetic Fields

Speaker: Russell Kulsrud, Princeton University

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1013

Date: Wednesday, October 23, 1996, 1:30 p.m.

Synopsis:

The question of the origin of galactic magnetic fields is a long standing problem. It turns out that a likely origin is the shear turbulence that is generated by gravitational instabilities when galaxies are formed. This turbulence is strong and on a scale comparable with the whole protogalaxies. It will be shown how magnetic fields are produced by this turbulence and how the magnetic field manages to smooth itself out and makes a large coherent primordial magnetic field to feed into the galactic disk. The subsequent history of this field will also be sketched. It will be suggested that these processes are the solution to galactic magnetic field origins.