CMB spectral distortions from the decay of causally generated magnetic fields

TL;DR

This paper refines calculations of how decaying primordial magnetic fields from early universe phase transitions could cause detectable spectral distortions in the CMB, especially if they are helical.

Contribution

It provides improved estimates of CMB spectral distortions from causally generated magnetic fields, highlighting the importance of magnetic helicity for detectability.

Findings

Non-helical fields produce distortions below detectability thresholds.

Helical fields with helicity fraction >10^{-4} can cause detectable distortions.

Detection of distortions would imply primordial magnetic helicity.

Abstract

We improve previous calculations of the CMB spectral distortions due to the decay of primordial magnetic fields. We focus our studies on causally generated magnetic fields at the electroweak and QCD phase transitions. We also consider the decay of helical magnetic fields. We show that the decay of non-helical magnetic fields generated at either the electroweak or QCD scale produce $\mu$ and $y$-type distortions below $10^{-8}$ which are probably not detectable by a future PIXIE-like experiment. We show that magnetic fields generated at the electroweak scale must have a helicity fraction $f_*>10^{-4}$ in order to produce detectable $\mu$-type distortions. Hence a positive detection coming from the decay of magnetic fields would rule out non-helical primordial magnetic fields and provide a lower bound on the magnetic helicity.