The intergalactic medium (IGM) underwent intense heating that resulted in pressure disequilibrium in the wake of ionization fronts during cosmic reionization. The dynamical relaxation to restore pressure balance may have driven small-scale turbulence and, hence, the amplification of intergalactic magnetic fields. We investigate this possibility for the first time using a suite of $\approx 100\mathrm{pc}$ resolution radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of IGM gas dynamics. We show that as the spatial resolution improves beyond that achieved with most prior studies, much of the IGM becomes turbulent unless it was preheated to $\gg 100\mathrm{K}$ before reionization. In our most turbulent simulations, we find that the gas energy spectrum follows the expected $k^{-5/3}$ Kolmogorov scaling to the simulation’s resolution, and the eddy turnover time of the turbulence is $<1\mathrm{Gyr}$ at $k\approx 1{\mathrm{kpc}}^{-1}$. Turbulence will grow magnetic fields, and we show that the fields grown by reionization-driven turbulence could explain lower limits on the strength of volume-filling B fields from observations of TeV blazars. As reionization sweeps over the cosmos, this mechanism could create turbulence throughout the cosmic volume with a character that only depends on the amount of IGM preheating.

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• Turbulence
• Intergalactic medium
• Magnetic fluids