Chiral effects and cosmic magnetic fields

Hiroyuki Tashiro, Tanmay Vachaspati, Alexander Vilenkin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

103 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the presence of cosmic chiral asymmetry, chiral-vorticity and chiral-magnetic effects can play an important role in the generation and evolution of magnetic fields in the early universe. We include these chiral effects in the magnetic field equations and find solutions under simplifying assumptions. Our numerical and analytical results show the presence of an attractor solution in which chiral effects produce a strong, narrow, Gaussian peak in the magnetic spectrum and the magnetic field becomes maximally helical. The peak in the spectrum shifts to longer length scales and becomes sharper with evolution. We also find that the dynamics may become nonlinear for certain parameters, pointing to the necessity of a more complete analysis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number105033
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume86
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 19 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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