Force-free magnetic filaments and the cosmic background radiation

Dense, force-free magnetic filaments generated by quasars, active galactic nuclei, and Herbig-Haro objects can remain stable in the intergalactic medium for many Gy. They will be opaque to radiation with wavelengths longer than 100-400 μm, and essentially transparent to shorter wavelengths. They are thus capable of thermalizing and isotropizing the cosmic background radiation, and of accounting for the observed decrease of radio luminosity of galaxies within increasing distance from the Earth