EVIDENCE FOR A PRIMORDIAL MAGNETIC FIELD FROM THE CMB POLARIZATION AND POWER SPECTRA

We present the newest statistical and numerical analysis of the matter and cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum with effects of the primordial magnetic field (PMF) included. New limits to the PMF strength and power spectral index are obtained based upon the accumulated data for both the matter and CMB power spectra on small angular scales. We find that a maximum develops in the probability distribution for a magnitude of the PMF of |B_λ| = 0.85±1.25(±1σ) nG on a comoving scale of at 1 Mpc, corresponding to upper limits of < 2.10nG(68%CL) and < 2.98nG(95%CL). While for the power spectral index we find , corresponding to upper limits of < −1.19(68%CL) and < −0.25(95%CL). This result provides new constraints on models for magnetic field generation and the physics of the early universe. We have also made an analysis of limits on the neutrino mass which includes the formation of large scale structure in the presence of a primordial magnetic field. We find that new upper and lower bounds on the neutrino mass are possible based upon fits to the CMB power spectrum which include the existing independent constrains on the matter density fluctuation parameter σ₈ and the primordial magnetic field.