Magnetic Fields in the Aftermath of Phase Transitions

Understand

The COSLAB effort has focussed on the formation of topological defects during phase transitions.

• Yet there is another potentially interesting signature of cosmological phase transitions, which also deserves study in the lab.
• This is the generation of magnetic fields during phase transitions.
• In particular, cosmological phase transitions that also lead to preferential production of matter over antimatter (``baryogenesis''), are expected to produce helical (left-handed) magnetic fields.