Can information be passed from large scale structures in the universe like filaments down to sub atomic particles and back up again using magnetic fields? How long would it take?

Tau.Neutrino said:

Can information be passed from large scale structures in the universe like filaments down to sub atomic particles and back up again using magnetic fields? How long would it take?

Can you be more specific in your question? Which subatomic particle and what do you mean by “passing”?

Perhaps this will shed some light on the question. Let’s consider a large scale structure of the universe such as a galaxy or galaxy cluster, or even up to the size of the cosmic microwave background.

Let’s start with the subatomic particle the photon. The photon’s magnetic field would appear directly as polarisation and less directly as direction and momentum. Photons passing through large scale structures in the universe have been observed to change polarisation (due to universe-scale magnetic fields), direction (due to universe-scale gravitational irregularities) and momentum (due to universe-scale expansion).

Now let’s move to the subatomic particle the electron. Electrons, being electrically charged, are strongly deflected by large scale magnetic fields, from the scale of the Earth’s magnetic field up to and past the scale of the magnetic field of the Milky Way. If there was a powerful enough source of electrons in the universe then the magnetic fields between us and there would show up in the polarisation, direction and momentum of electrons. A problem for astronomers has been finding a powerful enough source.

Beyond electrons, cosmic rays consist largely of protons and alpha rays. These too are affected by the Earth’s magnetic field and the magnetic field of the Milky Way.

Moving beyond those, we have muons, neutrons and neutrinos. Muons, neutrons and neutrinos have all been used in investigating scales up to the Earth’s crust, and I suppose they have the potential to retain magnetic information from further afield.