Anomalous Global Strings and Primordial Magnetic Fields

Abstract

We propose a new mechanism for the generation of primordial magnetic fields, making use of the magnetic fields which are induced by anomalous global strings which couple to electromagnetism via Wess-Zumino type interactions. This mechanism can be realized in QCD by utilizing pion strings, global vortices which appear in the linear sigma model which describes physics below the QCD confinement scale. During the chiral symmetry breaking phase transition, pion strings can be produced, thus leading to primordial magnetic fields. We calculate the magnitude and coherence length of these fields. They are seen to depend on the string dynamics. With optimistic assumptions, both the magnitude and coherence scale of the induced magnetic fields can be large enough to explain the seed magnetic fields of greater than $10^{-23}$ Gauss necessary to produce the observed galactic magnetic fields via the galactic dynamo mechanism.