The generation of primordial magnetic fields

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:10060016,
            doi = {10.48660/10060016},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/10060016},
            author = {Durrer, Ruth},
            keywords = {},
            language = {en},
            title = {The generation of primordial magnetic fields},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2010},
            month = {jun},
            note = {PIRSA:10060016 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/pirsa/10060016}}
          }
          

Abstract

Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in our Universe. The are observed in galaxies and clusters in our vicinity and at high redshifts. In my talk I outline the possibilities to generate magnetic fields in the early Universe during inflation or during a first order phase transition. I explain the form of the magnetic field spectrum obtained in the different cases. I also discuss the subsequent evolution of helical and non-helical magnetic fields in the cosmological plasma and argue that fields generated at the electroweak phase transition do not have enough large scale power to represent the magnetic fields observed in galaxies and clusters, even if they are maximally helical.