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Cosmic Microwave Background Trispectrum and Primordial Magnetic Field Limits

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arxiv 1111.0744 v2 pith:GQPV3YG5 submitted 2011-11-03 astro-ph.CO gr-qchep-ph

Cosmic Microwave Background Trispectrum and Primordial Magnetic Field Limits

classification astro-ph.CO gr-qchep-ph
keywords magneticprimordiallimitscosmicfieldfieldsscalestrispectrum
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Primordial magnetic fields will generate non-Gaussian signals in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as magnetic stresses and the temperature anisotropy they induce depend quadratically on the magnetic field. We compute a new measure of magnetic non-Gaussianity, the CMB trispectrum, on large angular scales, sourced via the Sachs-Wolfe effect. The trispectra induced by magnetic energy density and by magnetic scalar anisotropic stress are found to have typical magnitudes of approximately a few times 10^{-29} and 10^{-19}, respectively. Observational limits on CMB non-Gaussianity from WMAP data allow us to conservatively set upper limits of a nG, and plausibly sub-nG, on the present value of the primordial cosmic magnetic field. This represents the tightest limit so far on the strength of primordial magnetic fields, on Mpc scales, and is better than limits from the CMB bispectrum and all modes in the CMB power spectrum. Thus, the CMB trispectrum is a new and more sensitive probe of primordial magnetic fields on large scales.

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