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    Impact of inhomogeneous perturbations of the inflaton on the cosmological primordial magnetic field

    Yu Li*, Shuang Liu†, Hang Wang‡, and Yao-chuan Wang§

    • *Contact author: leeyu@dlmu.edu.cn
    • †Contact author: 1120240893shuangliu@dlmu.edu.cn
    • ‡Contact author: wang-hang@dlmu.edu.cn
    • §Contact author: ycwang@dlmu.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. D 112, 023539 – Published 23 July, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qhg8-nx1s

    Abstract

    We investigate the impact of inhomogeneous inflaton perturbations on primordial magnetic fields within the framework of generalized inflationary magnetogenesis models. Extending the Ratra model to general spacetime backgrounds, we analyze the constraint structure of the electromagnetic field and demonstrate that the standard Coulomb gauge must be generalized to accommodate spatial inhomogeneities. Instead of the vector potential, we solve the conjugate momentum with the modified initial conditions introduced by the coupling function, which become dominant during the late stages of inflation. These change the conditions under which scale-invariant electromagnetic spectra are achieved. Furthermore, we address the challenge of evaluating convolutions between vector potentials and inflaton perturbations by employing separate large- and small-scale approximations. The resulting influence on the electric and magnetic power spectra is quantified using ΔE and ΔB, revealing a scale-dependent influence of inhomogeneities. We also find that the spectrum index evolution is sensitive to the sign of Vϕ, with distinctive behaviors for electric and magnetic fields under different scale-invariance conditions. Notably, for nearly scale-invariant magnetic fields, the perturbative effects shift the spectral index towards the red and migrate toward smaller scales as inflation progresses. We have also compared the obtained results with observational data; these offer a potential observational probe to differentiate between large-field and small-field inflation scenarios.

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