Photon Mass from Inflation
Abstract
We consider vacuum polarization from massless scalar electrodynamics in deSitter inflation. The theory exhibits a 3+1 dimensional analog of the Schwinger mechanism in which a photon mass is dynamically generated. The mechanism is generic for light scalar fields that couple minimally to gravity. The nonvanishing of the photon mass during inflation may result in magnetic fields on cosmological scales.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- September 2002
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.101301
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0205331
- Bibcode:
- 2002PhRvL..89j1301P
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmology;
- Electromagnetic Fields;
- Gauge Theory;
- Lagrangian Function;
- Particle Mass;
- Photons;
- Quantum Theory;
- Universe;
- Astrophysics;
- 98.80.Cq;
- 04.62.+v;
- 98.80.Hw;
- Particle-theory and field-theory models of the early Universe;
- Quantum field theory in curved spacetime;
- Astrophysics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- High Energy Physics - Theory
- E-Print:
- RevTeX, 4 pages, 2 eps figures