Just found this article ...
"Origin of magnetic fields may lie in special relativity's spacetime distortions"
Quote:
Magnetic fields play an important role on scales ranging from the sub-atomic to the cosmic, from particle spins to galaxy clusters. Although scientists know how to create and manipulate magnetic fields, as well as use them for a variety of applications from computers to credit cards, they still don't have a universal theory of how magnetic fields initially originated in astrophysical settings. In a new study, two scientists have proposed a new primary generation mechanism for the magnetic field that is based on the spacetime distortions caused by special relativity.
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Magnetic fields are found in all levels of cosmic and astrophysical settings,” Mahajan said. “Most of them are, perhaps, relic fields created at some time in the evolution of the universe. The magnetic fields could have played a very fundamental part in the structure formation. Unless one isolates how and where and perhaps when they are generated, it is hard to put together a satisfactory story of the universe. Unraveling the origin story is a big deal. Magnetic field generation in laboratory systems, especially in the highly relativistic systems, is again a fundamental determinant of the further evolution of such systems and needs to be understood. We are nowhere near the complete unraveling, but we hope that we may have taken a major step towards creating an eventual story; it will require a lot of computational and modeling effort to develop the story.”
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Interesting. The theory/maths is complex but the model these guys are working on could add a very important part of our understanding about magnetic fields on cosmological scales.
Worth a read !
Cheers
