Leiden University Student Repository

Elion, Maarten (2025)

Magnetic Fields in Cosmological Box Simulations Using SWIFT

Master thesis | Physics (MSc)

Magnetic fields are everywhere in the universe but their origins are still uncertain. In this research we present a set of stable cosmological box simulations of the magnetic field using the MHD branch of the SWIFT open source SPH simulation code. We have implemented cooling and stellar feedback into the simulations, as well as run a purely adiabatic simulation. We look into the large-scale structure of the magnetic field and observe magnetic field amplification beyond adiabatic for the cooling simulations, up to values of 103 μG for cooling only, and 102 μG for cooling and stellar feedback. We discuss the magnetic field profile in halos which we find to be a little higher than observed in our universe. We also present fiducial RM maps of the largest halo in the simulations, with central RM values of ∼ 10 rad m−2 for the adiabatic halo ∼ 103 rad m−2 for the cooling and cooling plus stellar feedback halo. The hope is that this code can be very useful in understanding magnetic fields...Show moreMagnetic fields are everywhere in the universe but their origins are still uncertain. In this research we present a set of stable cosmological box simulations of the magnetic field using the MHD branch of the SWIFT open source SPH simulation code. We have implemented cooling and stellar feedback into the simulations, as well as run a purely adiabatic simulation. We look into the large-scale structure of the magnetic field and observe magnetic field amplification beyond adiabatic for the cooling simulations, up to values of 103 μG for cooling only, and 102 μG for cooling and stellar feedback. We discuss the magnetic field profile in halos which we find to be a little higher than observed in our universe. We also present fiducial RM maps of the largest halo in the simulations, with central RM values of ∼ 10 rad m−2 for the adiabatic halo ∼ 103 rad m−2 for the cooling and cooling plus stellar feedback halo. The hope is that this code can be very useful in understanding magnetic fields not only in the low density regimes, but also in the high density clusters, and getting closer to understanding the magnetic seeding mechanisms.Show less

Author

Elion, Maarten

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Specialisation

Cosmology

Supervisors

Schaller, M.

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en