Effective field theories and inflationary magnetogenesis

Abstract

The effective approach is applied to the analysis of inflationary magnetogenesis. Rather than assuming a particular underlying description, all the generally covariant terms potentially appearing with four space-time derivatives in the effective action have been included and weighted by inflaton-dependent couplings. The higher derivatives are suppressed by the negative powers of a typical mass scale whose specific values ultimately depend on the tensor to scalar ratio. During a quasi-de Sitter stage the corresponding corrections always lead to an asymmetry between the hypermagnetic and the hyperelectric susceptibilities. After presenting a general method for the estimate of the gauge power spectra, the obtained results are illustrated for generic models and also in the case of some non-generic scenarios where either the inflaton has some extra symmetry or the higher-order terms are potentially dominant.