A groundbreaking experiment offers new insights into the potential mechanism that could seed magnetic fields for the galactic dynamo. The Science Plasma is a state of matter where the intense heat causes the separation of electrons from atoms, resulting in a mixture of free-floating electrons and
Contours of magnetic fields that emerge a result of self-organization of microscopic currents resulting from the Weibel instability in a carbon dioxide laser-produced plasma probed by an ultrashort relativistic electron beam. Credit:A groundbreaking experiment offers new insights into the potential mechanism that could seed magnetic fields for the galactic dynamo.
How the seed magnetic fields are created is a longstanding question in astrophysics. This new work offers a possible solution to this vexing problem of the origin of the microgauss level seed magnetic fields. The research used a novel platform that has great potential for studying the ultrafast dynamics of magnetic fields in the laboratory plasmas that are relevant to astro- and high-energy-density physics.