The scaling of primordial gauge fields

The large-scale magnetic fields arising from the quantum mechanical fluctuations of the hypercharge are investigated when the evolution of the gauge coupling is combined with a sufficiently long inflationary stage. In this framework the travelling waves associated with the quantum mechanical initial conditions turn asymptotically into standing waves which are the gauge analog of the Sakharov oscillations. Even if the rate of dilution of the hypermagnetic and hyperelectric fields seems to be superficially smaller than expected from the covariant conservation of the energy-momentum tensor, the standard evolution for wavelengths larger than the Hubble radius fully accounts for this anomalous scaling which is anyway unable to increase the amplitude of the magnetic power spectra after symmetry breaking. An effective amplification of the gauge power spectra may instead occur when the post-inflationary expansion rate is slower than radiation. We stress that the modulations of the gauge power spectra freeze as soon as the relevant wavelengths reenter the Hubble radius and not at the end of inflation. After the Mpc scale crosses the comoving Hubble radius the scaling of the magnetic power spectrum follows from the dominance of the conductivity. From these two observations the late-time values of the magnetic power spectra are accurately computed in the case of a nearly scale-invariant slope and contrasted with the situation where the phases of Sakharov oscillations are not evaluated at horizon crossing but at the end of inflation, i.e. when all the wavelengths relevant for magnetogenesis are still larger than the comoving horizon.