Electrical Conduction in the Early Universe

Abstract

The electrical conductivity has been calculated in the early universe at temperatures below as well as above the electroweak vacuum scale, $T_c\simeq 100$GeV. Debye and dynamical screening of electric and magnetic interactions leads to a finite conductivity, ${\sigma }_{el}\sim T/\alpha \ln (1/\alpha )$, at temperatures well below $T_c$. At temperatures above, $W^{\pm }$ charge-exchange processes -- analogous to color exchange through gluons in QCD -- effectively stop left-handed charged leptons. However, right-handed leptons can carry current, resulting in ${\sigma }_{el}/T$ being only a factor $\sim {\cos }^4{\theta }_W$ smaller than at temperatures below $T_c$.

6 pages including 1 figures. Proc. of SEWM, dec. 98