Intergalactic Magnetic Fields from First-Order Phase Transitions

Understand

We study the generation of intergalactic magnetic fields in two models for first-order phase transitions in the early Universe that have been studied previously in connection with the generation of gravitational waves (GWs): the Standard Model supplemented by an $|H|^6$ operator (SM+$H^6$) and a classically scale-invariant model with an extra gauged U(1) $B - L$ symmetry (SM$_{B-L}$).

• We consider contributions to magnetic fields generated by bubble collisions and by turbulence in the primordial plasma, and we consider the hypotheses that helicity is seeded in the gauge field or kinetically.
• We study the conditions under which the intergalactic magnetic fields generated may be larger than the lower bounds from blazar observations, and correlate them with the observability of GWs and possible collider signatures.
• In the SM+$H^6$ model bubble collisions alone cannot yield large enough magnetic fields, whereas turbulence may do so.