• Open Access

Inflationary magnetogenesis, derivative couplings, and relativistic Van der Waals interactions

Massimo Giovannini
Phys. Rev. D 92, 043521 – Published 28 August 2015

Abstract

When the gauge fields have derivative couplings to scalars, like in the case of the relativistic theory of Van der Waals (or Casimir-Polder) interactions, conformal invariance is broken but the magnetic and electric susceptibilities are not bound to coincide. We analyze the formation of large-scale magnetic fields in slow-roll inflation and find that they are generated at the level of a few hundredths of a nG and over typical length scales between few Mpc and 100 Mpc. Using a new time parametrization that reduces to conformal time but only for coincident susceptibilities, the gauge action is quantized while the evolution equations of the corresponding mode functions are more easily solvable. The power spectra depend on the normalized rates of variation of the two susceptibilities (or of the corresponding gauge couplings) and on the absolute value of their ratio at the beginning of inflation. We pin down explicit regions in the parameter space where all the physical requirements (i.e., the backreaction constraints, the magnetogenesis bounds and the naturalness of the initial conditions of the scenario) are jointly satisfied. Weakly coupled initial data are favored if the gauge couplings are of the same order at the end of inflation. Duality is systematically used to simplify the analysis of the wide parameter space of the model.

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  • Received 12 June 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.043521

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Massimo Giovannini*

  • Department of Physics, Theory Division, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland INFN, Section of Milan-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy

  • *massimo.giovannini@cern.ch

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 4 — 15 August 2015

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