English

Generation of Cosmic Magnetic Fields and Gravitational Waves at Neutrino Decoupling

Astrophysics 2009-11-06 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We show that an inhomogeneous cosmological lepton number may have produced turbulence in the primordial plasma when neutrinos entered (almost) free-streaming regime. This effect may be responsible for the origin of cosmic magnetic fields and give rise to a detectable background of gravitational waves. An existence of inhomogeneous lepton asymmetry could be naturally generated by active-sterile neutrino oscillations or by some versions of Affleck and Dine baryogenesis scenario.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0106154,
  title  = {Generation of Cosmic Magnetic Fields and Gravitational Waves at Neutrino Decoupling},
  author = {A. D. Dolgov and D. Grasso},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0106154},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 Pages, RevTeX - 2 encapsulated postscript figures; final version accepted for pubblication in PRL