A numerical study of primordial magnetic field amplification by inflation-produced gravitational waves

Abstract

We numerically study the interaction of inflation-produced magnetic fields with gravitational waves, both of which originate from quantum fluctuations during inflation. The resonance between the magnetic field perturbations and the gravitational waves has been suggested as a possible mechanism for magnetic field amplification. However, some analytical studies suggest that the effect of the inflationary gravitational waves is too small to provide significant amplification. Our numerical study shows more clearly how the interaction affects the magnetic fields and confirms the weakness of the influence of the gravitational waves. We present an investigation based on the magnetohydrodynamic approximation and take into account the differences of the Alfven speed.

7 pages, 2 figures, revised version accepted by PRD

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Generation of large-scale magnetic fields, non-Gaussianity, and primordial gravitational waves in inflationary cosmology
• Cosmic Electromagnetic Fields due to Perturbations in the Gravitational Field
• On the Interaction Between Electromagnetic, Gravitational, and Plasma Related Perturbations on LRS Class II Spacetimes