Gravitational wave production: A strong constraint on primordial magnetic fields

dc.creatorCaprini, Chiara
dc.creatorDurrer, Ruth
dc.date2001-06-13
dc.date2001-10-01
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T11:28:47Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T11:28:47Z
dc.descriptionWe compute the gravity waves induced by anisotropic stresses of stochastic primordial magnetic fields. The nucleosynthesis bound on gravity waves is then used to derive a limit on the magnetic field amplitude as function of the spectral index. The obtained limits are extraordinarily strong: If the primordial magnetic field is produced by a causal process, leading to a spectral index $n\ge 2$ on super horizon scales, galactic magnetic fields produced at the electroweak phase transition or earlier have to be weaker than $B_\la \le 10^{-27}$Gauss! If they are induced during an inflationary phase (reheating temperature $T\sim 10^{15}$GeV) with a spectral index $n\sim 0$, the magnetic field has to be weaker than $B_\la \le 10^{-39}$Gauss! Only very red magnetic field spectra, $n\sim -3$ are not strongly constrained. We also find that a considerable amount of the magnetic field energy is converted into gravity waves. The gravity wave limit derived in this work rules out most of the proposed processes for primordial seeds for the large scale coherent magnetic fields observed in galaxies and clusters.
dc.description11pages 2 figures Replaced with the significantly expanded version accepted for publication in PRD. More detailed explanations, same conclusions
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0106244
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0106244
dc.identifierPhys.Rev.D65:023517,2001
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevD.65.023517
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/196507
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectGeneral Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology
dc.titleGravitational wave production: A strong constraint on primordial magnetic fields
dc.typetext

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