Evolution of inflation-generated magnetic field through phase transitions

Abstract

We study the evolution of an inflation-generated magnetic field, due to its coupling to fluid motions, during cosmological phase transitions. We find that the magnetic field stays almost unchanged on large scales, while on small scales, the spectrum is modified in such a way that power at small scales becomes progressively suppressed. We also show that the magnetic field generates turbulent motions in the initially turbulence-free plasma. On large scales, the slope of the resulting kinetic energy spectrum is consistent with that of white noise.