The effect of highly structured cosmic magnetic fields on ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray propagation

The possibility that the magnetic held is strongly correlated with the larg e-scale structure of the universe has been considered recently in the liter ature. In this scenario, the intergalactic magnetic held has a strong (in u nits of microgauss) regular component spanning tens of megaparsecs but loca lized in sheets and filaments, while the vast voids in between are almost f ree of magnetic field. If true, this could have important consequences on t he propagation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and severely affect our cap acity for doing astronomy with charged particles. A quantitative discussion of these effects is given in the present work.