Simulations of helical inflationary magnetogenesis and gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to explore helical inflationary magnetogenesis, revealing how reheating temperature influences magnetic spectra and gravitational wave signals, with potential detectability by space interferometers.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed numerical analysis of helical inflationary magnetogenesis and its gravitational wave signatures across a range of reheating temperatures.

Findings

Magnetic energy spectrum peaks depend on reheating temperature.

Gravitational wave frequencies range from 3 nHz to 50 mHz.

Helicity extends the GW spectrum peak and affects polarization.

Abstract

Using numerical simulations of helical inflationary magnetogenesis in a low reheating temperature scenario, we show that the magnetic energy spectrum is strongly peaked at a particular wavenumber that depends on the reheating temperature. Gravitational waves (GWs) are produced at frequencies between 3 nHz and 50 mHz for reheating temperatures between 150 MeV and 3x10^5 GeV, respectively. At and below the peak frequency, the stress spectrum is always found to be that of white noise. This implies a linear increase of GW energy per logarithmic wavenumber interval, instead of a cubic one, as previously thought. Both in the helical and nonhelical cases, the GW spectrum is followed by a sharp drop for frequencies above the respective peak frequency. In this magnetogenesis scenario, the presence of a helical term extends the peak of the GW spectrum and therefore also the position of the aforementioned drop toward larger frequencies compared to the case without helicity. This might make a difference in it being detectable with space interferometers. The efficiency of GW production is found to be almost the same as in the nonhelical case, and independent of the reheating temperature, provided the electromagnetic energy at the end of reheating is fixed to be a certain fraction of the radiation energy density. Also, contrary to the case without helicity, the electric energy is now less than the magnetic energy during reheating. The fractional circular polarization is found to be nearly hundred per cent in a certain range below the peak frequency range.