Resonant Amplification of Gauge Fields in Expanding Universe

Abstract

We investigate the possibility that gauge fluctuations are amplified in an expanding universe by parametric resonance, during the oscillatory regime of a scalar field to which they are coupled. We investigate the couplings of gauge fields to a charged scalar field and to an axion. For both couplings, gauge field fluctuations undergo exponential instabilities. We discuss how the presence of other charges or currents may counteract the resonance, but we argue that in some cases the resonance will persist and that hence this mechanism could have some relevance for the problem of large scale primordial magnetic fields.