One of the major goals of our proposed research is to verify the primordial origin of cosmic magnetic fields: to achieve this goal we plan to study the evolution and observational signatures of cosmic magnetic fields in different astrophysical media such as clusters, galaxies, and the interstellar medium. Numerical simulations will be carried out to model the evolution of cosmic magnetic fields in expanding universe with time-varying dissipative properties when initial conditions correspond to the different scenarios of the magnetogenesis. Over the lengthy period, from the generation moment till today, the magnetic field is affected by different physical processes that result in amplification as well as damping; the complexities of the problem are due to the strong coupling between the magnetic field and turbulent motions. In fact, the presence of the primordial magnetic field in the early universe leads to the development of turbulence (a high Reynolds number in the early universe ensures strong coupling between the magnetic field and fluid motions), and thus the subsequent evolution of the magnetic field is governed by decaying hydromagnetic turbulence.

Principal investigator: Tinatin Kakhniashvili