Spontaneous magnetization of a vacuum in the hot Universe and intergalactic magnetic fields

Abstract

We review the spontaneous magnetization of the vacuum of non-Abelian gauge fields at high temperature. The standard model of particles is investigated as a particular example. By using both analytic methods of quantum field theory and gauge field theory on a lattice, we determine the Abelian (chromo)magnetic fields in the restored phase of the model at high temperatures $T\ge T_{ew}$. The fields are stable and temperature dependent, $B=B(T)$. We investigate the mechanisms of the field stabilization in detail. The screening parameters for electric and magnetic fields - the Debye, $m_D(B,T),$ and magnetic, $m_{magn.}(B,T)$, masses - are calculated. It is shown that, in the field presence, the former one is smaller than at zero field. The magnetic mass of the (chromo)magnetic fields is determined to be zero, as for usual $U(1)$ magnetic field. We also show that the vacuum magnetization stops at temperatures below the electroweak phase transition temperature, $T\le T_{ew}$, when a scalar condensate creates. These properties make reasonable a possibility that the intergalactic magnetic fields observed recently were spontaneously generated in the hot Universe at the reheating epoch due to vacuum polarization of non-Abelian gauge fields. We present a procedure for estimating the field strengths $B(T)$ at different temperatures. In particular, the value of $B(T_{ew})\sim 10^{14}G$, at $T_{ew}$ is estimated with taking into consideration the observed intergalactic magnetic field $B_0\sim 10^{-15}G$. The magnetic field scale is also estimated. Some model dependent peculiarities of the phenomena studied are briefly discussed.

42 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (15)

• The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics
• Cosmological Magnetic Fields: Their Generation, Evolution and Observation
• QCD Phase Transition in a Strong Magnetic Background
• Cosmic Microwave Background Quadrupole and Ellipsoidal Universe
• Magnetic susceptibility of QCD at zero and at finite temperature from the lattice
• Lattice QCD Simulations in External Background Fields
• Pseudo-random number generators for Monte Carlo simulations on Graphics Processing Units
• QCD dynamics in a constant chromomagnetic field
• Non-topological gravitating defects in five-dimensional anti-de Sitter space
• Polarization tensor of charged gluons in color magnetic background field at finite temperature
• The symmetries of inflationary magnetogenesis and the plasma initial conditions
• Neutral gluon polarization tensor in color magnetic background at finite temperature
• Monte Carlo simulations on Graphics Processing Units
• Spontaneous creation of chromomagnetic field and A_0-condensate at high temperature on a lattice
• Light millicharged particles and large scale cosmic magnetic fields

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Magnetized quark-gluon plasma at the LHC
• $A_0$ condensation, Nielsen's identity and effective potential of order parameter