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Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Building Langmuir Probes and Emissive Probes for Plasma Potential Measurements in Low Pressure, Low Temperature Plasmas
Published on: May 25, 2021
Spontaneous magnetization of collisionless plasma
Muni Zhou1, Vladimir Zhdankin2,3, Matthew W Kunz3,4
1Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Abstract:
SignificanceAstronomical observations indicate that dynamically important magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Universe, while their origin remains a profound mystery. This work provides a paradigm for understanding the origin of cosmic magnetism by taking into account the effects of the microphysics of collisionless plasmas on macroscopic astrophysical processes. We demonstrate that the first magnetic fields can be spontaneously generated in the Universe by generic motions of astrophysical turbulence through kinetic plasma physics, and cosmic plasmas are thereby ubiquitously magnetized. Our theoretical and numerical results set the stage for determining how these "seed" magnetic fields are further amplified by the turbulent dynamo (another central and long-standing question) and thus advance a fully self-consistent explanation of cosmic magnetogenesis.
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