Hypermagnetic power spectra and the phases of Sakharov oscillations

If the gauge fields are amplified from the inflationary vacuum, the quantum mechanical initial data correspond to travelling waves that turn asymptotically into standing waves whose phases only depend on the evolution of the gauge coupling. We point out that these gauge analogs of the Sakharov oscillations are exchanged by the duality symmetry and ultimately constrain both the relative scaling of the hypermagnetic power spectra and their final asymptotic values. Unlike the case of the density contrasts in a relativistic plasma, the standing oscillations never develop since they are eventually overdamped by the finite value of the conductivity as soon as the corresponding modes are comparable with the expansion rates after inflation. We show that the late-time value of the magnetic field is not determined at radiation dominance (and in spite of the value of the wave number) but it depends on the moment when the wavelengths (comparable with the Mpc) get of the order of the Hubble radius before equality. This means that the magnetogenesis requirements are only relaxed if the postinflationary expansion rate is slower than radiation but the opposite is true when the plasma expands faster than radiation and the corresponding power spectra are further suppressed. After combining the present findings with the evolution of the gauge coupling we show that these results are consistent with a magnetogenesis scenario where the gauge coupling is always perturbative during the inflationary stage while, in the dual case, the same requirements cannot be satisfied. This means, in practice, that large-scale magnetic fields can be successfully generated in a model that incorporates inflation and that is weakly coupled throughout all its stages without the need of an initial strongly coupled regime. We finally clarify that the late-time scaling of the gauge fields is not peculiar, as sometimes argued, but it follows without any ambiguity from the evolution equations of the model and it is determined by the rate of variation of the gauge coupling during inflation.

Automated summary

If gauge fields are amplified from the inflationary vacuum, quantum mechanical initial data will evolve into standing waves whose phases depend on the evolution of the gauge coupling. These gauge analogs of Sakharov oscillations are constrained by duality symmetry, affecting the scaling and final asymptotic values of the hypermagnetic power spectra. The late-time value of the magnetic field is determined by the moment when the wavelengths become comparable to the Hubble radius.