Cosmological magnetogenesis driven by radiation pressure

The origin of large scale cosmological magnetic fields remains a mystery, despite the continuous efforts devoted to that problem. We present a new model of magnetic field generation, based on local charge separation provided by an anisotropic and inhomogeneous radiation pressure. In the cosmological context, the processes we explore take place at the epoch of the reionization of the Universe. Under simple assumptions, we obtain results (i) in terms of the order of magnitude of the field generated at large scales and (ii) in terms of its power spectrum. The amplitudes obtained (Bsimilar to8x10(-6) muG) are considerably higher than those obtained in usual magnetogenesis models and provide suitable seeds for amplification by adiabatic collapse and/or dynamo during structure formation.