Fluctuations in the relativistic plasma and primordial magnetic fields.

Abstract

The stochastic fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in a relativistic electron-positron plasma are studied. The correlation functions of the fluctuating four-current, electric and magnetic fields are computed to leading order using the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path formulation of thermal field theory. As an application, we consider the scenario proposed by Tajima et al. for generating a primordial magnetic field from thermal fluctuations in the prerecombination plasma. We compute the level of magnetic fluctuations sustained by the pair plasma at or before the epoch of big bang nucleosynthesis and conclude that the early Universe was pervaded by a strong low-frequency, albeit small-scale, random magnetic field. The astrophysical implications are briefly discussed.