Spectra of magnetic fields from electroweak symmetry breaking

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to refine the understanding of magnetic field spectra generated during electroweak symmetry breaking, revealing a k^4 spectrum instead of the previously thought k^3, and estimates present-day magnetic field strengths.

Contribution

It provides a revised magnetic field spectrum during electroweak symmetry breaking and estimates current magnetic field strengths based on these results.

Findings

Magnetic field spectrum is proportional to k^4, not k^3.

Estimated present-day magnetic field strength is ~10^{-13} G for non-helical fields.

Estimated present-day magnetic field strength is ~10^{-10} G for maximally helical fields.

Abstract

We characterize magnetic fields produced during electroweak symmetry breaking by non-dynamical numerical simulations based on the Kibble mechanism. The generated magnetic fields were thought to have an energy spectrum $\propto k^3$ for small wavenumbers $k$, but here we show that it is actually a spectrum $\propto k^4$ along with characteristic fluctuations in the magnetic helicity. Using scaling results from MHD simulations for the evolution and assuming that the initial magnetic field is coherent on the electroweak Hubble scale, we estimate the magnetic field strength to be $\sim 10^{-13}\, \rmG$ on kpc scales at the present epoch for non-helical fields. For maximally helical fields we obtain $\sim 10^{-10}\, \rmG$ on Mpc scales. We also give scalings of these estimates for partially helical fields.