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We study how Abelian-gauge-field production during inflation affects scalar perturbations in the case when the gauge field interacts with the inflaton directly (by means of generic kinetic and axial couplings) and via gravity. The homogeneous background solution is defined by self-consistently taking into account the backreaction of the gauge field on the evolution of the inflaton and the scale factor. For the perturbations on top of this background, all possible scalar contributions coming from the inflaton, the metric, and the gauge field are considered. We derive a second-order differential equation for the curvature perturbation, $\zeta$, capturing the impact of the gauge field, both on the background dynamics and on the evolution of scalar perturbations. The latter is described by a source term in the $\zeta$ equation, which is quadratic in the gauge-field operators and leads to non-Gaussianities in the curvature perturbations. We derive general expressions for the induced scalar power spectrum and bispectrum. Finally, we apply our formalism to the well-known case of axion inflation without backreaction. Numerical results show that, in this example, the effect of including metric perturbations is small for values of the gauge-field production parameter $\xi> 3$. This is in agreement with the previous results in the literature. However, in the region of smaller values, $\xi\lesssim 2$, our new results exhibit order-of-unity deviations when compared to previous results., Comment: 40 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, 146 references

Two approaches are developed for the study of the bound states of a one-dimensional Dirac equation with the potential consisting of $N$ $\delta$-function centers. One of these uses the Green's function method. This method is applicable to a finite number $N$ of $\delta$-point centers, reducing the bound state problem to finding the energy eigenvalues from the determinant of a $2N\times2N$ matrix. The second approach starts with the matrix for a single delta-center that connects the two-sided boundary conditions for this center. This connection matrix is obtained from the squeezing limit of a piecewise constant approximation of the delta-function. Having then the connection matrices for each center, the transmission matrix for the whole system is obtained by multiplying the one-center connection matrices and the free transfer matrices between neighbor centers. An equation for bound state energies is derived in terms of the elements of the total transfer matrix. Within both the approaches, the transcendental equations for bound state energies are derived, the solutions to which depend on the strength of delta-centers and the distance between them, and this dependence is illustrated by numerical calculations. The bound state energies for the potentials composed of one, two, and three delta-centers ($N=1,\,2,\,3$) are computed explicitly. The principle of strength additivity is analyzed in the limits as the delta-centers merge at a single point or diverge to infinity., Comment: 4 figures

In this work, we study general features of a regime where gauge fields produced during inflation cause a strong backreaction on the background evolution and its impact on the spectrum and the correlation length of gauge fields. With this aim, the gradient-expansion formalism previously proposed for the description of inflationary magnetogenesis in purely kinetic or purely axial coupling models, is extended to the case when both types of coupling are present. As it is formulated in position space, this method allows us to self-consistently take into account the backreaction of generated gauge fields on the inflationary background because it captures the nonlinear evolution of all physically relevant gauge-field modes at once. Using this extended gradient-expansion formalism, suitable for a wide range of inflationary magnetogenesis models, we study the gauge-field production in a specific generalization of the Starobinsky $R^2$-model with a nonminimal coupling of gauge fields to gravity. In the Einstein frame, this model implies, in addition to an asymptotically flat inflaton potential, also a nontrivial form of kinetic and axial coupling functions which decrease in time and, thus, are potentially suitable for the generation of gauge fields with a scale-invariant or even red-tilted power spectrum. The numerical analysis shows, however, that backreaction, which unavoidably occurs in this model for the interesting range of parameters, strongly alters the behavior of the spectrum and does not allow us to obtain a sufficiently large correlation length for the magnetic field. The oscillatory behavior of the generated field, caused by the retarded response of the gauge field to changes of the inflaton velocity, was revealed., Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures

In the framework of mixed Higgs-Starobinsky inflation, we consider the generation of Abelian gauge fields due to their nonminimal coupling to gravity (in two different formulations of gravity -- metric and Palatini). We couple the gauge-field invariants $F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$ and $F_{\mu\nu}\tilde{F}^{\mu\nu}$ to an integer power of the scalar curvature $R^n$ in Jordan frame and, treating these interactions perturbatively, switch to the Einstein frame where they lead to effective kinetic and axial couplings between gauge fields and inflaton. We determine the power spectra, energy densities, correlation length, and helicality of the generated gauge fields for different values of the nonminimal coupling constants and parameter $n$. We analytically estimate the spectral index $n_{B}$ of the magnetic power spectrum and show that for $n>1$ it is possible to get the scale-invariant or even red-tilted spectrum for a wide range of modes that implies larger correlation length of the generated fields. On the other hand, the magnitude of these fields typically decreases in time becoming very small in the end of inflation. Thus, it is difficult to obtain both large magnitude and correlation length of the gauge field in the frame of this model., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures

We study the generation of the chiral charge during axion inflation where the pseudoscalar inflaton field $\phi$ couples axially to the electromagnetic field through the term $(\beta/M_p)\phi\,\boldsymbol{E}\cdot\boldsymbol{B}$ with dimensionless coupling constant $\beta$. To describe the evolution of electromagnetic field and determine $\langle\boldsymbol{E}\cdot\boldsymbol{B}\rangle$ sourcing the chiral asymmetry during inflation due to the chiral anomaly, we employ the gradient expansion formalism. It operates with a set of vacuum expectation values of bilinear electromagnetic functions and allows us to take into account the backreaction of generated fields on the inflaton evolution as well as the Schwinger production of charged fermions. In addition, we include the chiral magnetic effect contribution to the electric current $\boldsymbol{j}_{\rm CME}=e^{2}/(2\pi^2)\mu_{5}\boldsymbol{B}$, where $\mu_5$ is the chiral chemical potential which quantifies the chiral charge production. Solving a set of equations for the inflaton field, scale factor, quadratic functions of the electromagnetic field, and the chiral charge density (chiral chemical potential), we find that the chirality production is quite efficient leading to the generation of a large chemical potential at the end of axion inflation., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2109.01651

Axion inflation coupled to the Standard Model (SM) hypercharge gauge sector represents an attractive scenario for the generation of primordial hypermagnetic fields. The description of this scenario is, however, complicated by the Schwinger effect, which gives rise to highly nonlinear dynamics. Hypermagnetogenesis during axion inflation in the absence of nonlinear effects is well studied and known to result in a hypermagnetic energy density that scales like $H^4\,e^{2\pi\xi}/\xi^5$, where $\xi$ is proportional to the time derivative of the axion-vector coupling in units of the Hubble rate $H$. In this paper, we generalize this result to the full SM case by consistently taking into account the Schwinger pair production of all SM fermions. To this end, we employ the novel gradient-expansion formalism that we recently developed in [2109.01651], and which is based on a set of vacuum expectation values for bilinear hyperelectromagnetic functions in position space. We parametrize the numerical output of our formalism in terms of three parameters ($\xi$, $H$, and $\Delta$, where the latter accounts for the damping of subhorizon gauge-field modes because of the finite conductivity of the medium) and work out semianalytical fit functions that describe our numerical results with high accuracy. Finally, we validate our results by comparing them to existing estimates in the literature as well as to the explicit numerical results in a specific inflationary model, which leads to good overall agreement. We conclude that the systematic uncertainties in the description of hypermagnetogenesis during axion inflation, which previously spanned up to several orders of magnitude, are now reduced to typically less than 1 order of magnitude, which paves the way for further phenomenological studies., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures

We study the explosive production of gauge fields during axion inflation in a novel gradient expansion formalism that describes the time evolution of a set of bilinear electromagnetic functions in position space. Based on this formalism, we are able to simultaneously account for two important effects that have thus far been mostly treated in isolation: (i) the backreaction of the produced gauge fields on the evolution of the inflaton field and (ii) the Schwinger pair production of charged particles in the strong gauge-field background. This allows us to show that the suppression of the gauge-field production due to the Schwinger effect can prevent the backreaction in scenarios in which it would otherwise be relevant. Moreover, we point out that the induced current, $\boldsymbol{J} = \sigma \boldsymbol{E}$, also dampens the Bunch-Davies vacuum fluctuations deep inside the Hubble horizon. We describe this suppression by a new parameter $\Delta$ that is related to the time integral over the conductivity $\sigma$ which hence renders the description of the entire system inherently nonlocal in time. Finally, we demonstrate how our formalism can be used to construct highly accurate solutions for the mode functions of the gauge field in Fourier space, which serves as a starting point for a wealth of further phenomenological applications, including the phenomenology of primordial perturbations and baryogenesis., Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures

In the framework of Higgs inflation, we consider the electromagnetic field nonminimally coupled to gravity via the parity-preserving $\propto RF^{2}$ and parity-violating $\propto RF\tilde{F}$ terms. Using the perturbation theory to the leading order in these couplings, we study the generation of the electromagnetic field during the inflation stage. We derive the effective kinetic and axial coupling functions arising in the Einstein frame in the usual metric as well as Palatini formulations of gravity. For both formulations, we determine the power spectrum, energy density, and helicality of the generated electromagnetic fields for different values of the nonminimal coupling constants. Finally, we estimate the maximal present-day magnitude of the magnetic field as $10^{-14}-10^{-15}\,$G with the correlation length of order 10 pc., Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures

In order to describe magnetogenesis during inflation in the kinetic coupling model, we utilize a gradient expansion which is based on the fact that only long-wavelength (superhorizon) modes undergo amplification. For this purpose, we introduce a set of functions (bilinear combinations of electromagnetic fields with an arbitrary number of spatial curls) satisfying an infinite chain of equations. Apart from the usual mode enhancement due to interaction with the inflaton, these equations also take into account the fact that the number of relevant modes constantly grows during inflation. Truncating this chain, we show that even with a relatively small number of equations, it is possible to describe the electric and magnetic energy densities with a few percent accuracy during the whole inflation stage. We arrive at this conclusion for different types of coupling functions (increasing, decreasing, and nonmonotonic) in the regime with strong backreaction and its absence., Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures

We calculate the rate of collisional decay of the axial charge in an ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasma, also known as the chirality flipping rate. We find that contrary to the existing estimates, the chirality flipping rate appears already in the first order in the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and is therefore orders of magnitude greater than previously believed. The main channels for the rapid relaxation of the axial charge are the collinear emission of a weakly damped photon and the Compton scattering. The latter contributes to the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha)$ result because of the infrared divergence in its cross section, which is regularized on the soft scale $\sim eT$ due to the thermal corrections. Our results are important for the description of the early Universe processes (such as leptogenesis or magnetogenesis) that affect differently left- and right-chiral fermions of the Standard Model, as discussed in more details in the companion Letter., Comment: 43 pages, 20 figures

We investigate collisional decay of the axial charge in an electron-photon plasma at temperatures 10 MeV - 100 GeV. We demonstrate that the decay rate of the axial charge is first order in the fine-structure constant $\Gamma_{\rm flip}\propto \alpha m_{e}^{2}/T$ and thus orders of magnitude greater than the naive estimate which has been in use for decades. This counterintuitive result arises through infrared divergences regularized at high temperature by environmental effects. The decay of axial charge plays an important role in the problems of leptogenesis and cosmic magnetogenesis., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures + Supplementary Material (3 pages)

By using the first-principles approach, we derive a system of three quantum kinetic equations governing the production and evolution of charged scalar particles by an electric field in an expanding universe. Analyzing the ultraviolet asymptotic behavior of the kinetic functions, we found the divergent parts of the electric current and the energy-momentum tensor of the produced particles and determined the corresponding counterterms. The renormalized system of equations is used to study the generation of electromagnetic fields during and after inflation in the kinetic coupling model $\mathcal{L}_{\rm EM}=-(1/4)f^{2}(\phi)F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$ with the Ratra coupling function $f=\exp(\beta\phi/M_{p})$. It is found that the electric current of created particles is retarded with respect to the electric field. This leads to an oscillatory behavior of both quantities in agreement with the results obtained previously in phenomenological kinetic and hydrodynamical approaches., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures

Using the kinetic approach, we study the impact of the charged particles dynamics due to the Schwinger effect on the electric field evolution during inflation. As a simple model of the electric field generation, we consider the kinetic coupling of the electromagnetic field to the inflaton via the term $f^{2}(\phi)F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$ with the Ratra coupling function $f=\exp(\beta\phi/M_{p})$. The production of charged particles is taken into account in the Boltzmann kinetic equation through the Schwinger source term. Produced particles are thermalized due to collisions which we model by using the collision integral in the self-consistent relaxation time approximation. We found that the current of created particles exhibits a non-Markovian character and cannot be described by a simple Ohm's law relation $j\propto E$. On the contrary, the electric current as well as the electric field are oscillatory functions of time with decreasing amplitudes and a phase difference due to the ballistic motion of charged carriers. Our qualitative results are checked by using a hydrodynamic approach. Deriving a closed system of equations for the number, current, and energy densities of charged particles and determining its solution, we find a good agreement with the results obtained in the kinetic approach., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

We study magnetogenesis in axionlike inflation driven by a pseudoscalar field $\phi$ coupled axially to the electromagnetic (EM) field $(\beta/M_{p})\phi F_{\mu\nu}\tilde{F}^{\mu\nu}$ with dimensionless coupling constant $\beta$. A set of equations for the inflaton field, scale factor, and expectation values of quadratic functions of the EM field is derived. These equations take into account the Schwinger effect and the backreaction of generated EM fields on the Universe expansion. It is found that the backreaction becomes important when the EM energy density reaches the value $\rho_{\rm EM}\sim (\sqrt{2\epsilon}/\beta)\rho_{\rm inf}$ ($\epsilon$ is the slow-roll parameter and $\rho_{\rm inf}$ is the energy density of the inflaton) slowing down the inflaton rolling and terminating magnetogenesis. The Schwinger effect becomes relevant when the electric energy density exceeds the value $\rho_{E}\sim \alpha_{\rm EM}^{-3} (\rho_{\rm tot}^{2}/M_{p}^{4})$, where $\rho_{\rm tot}=3H^{2}M_{p}^{2}$ is the total energy density and $\alpha_{\rm EM}$ is the EM coupling constant. For large $\beta$, produced charged particles could constitute a significant part of the Universe energy density even before the preheating stage. Numerically studying magnetogenesis in the $\alpha$-attractor model of inflation, we find that it is possible to generate helical magnetic fields with the maximal strength $10^{-15}\,{\rm G}$, however, only with the correlation length of order $1\,{\rm pc}$ at present., Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures

We study the electrical conductivity of hot Abelian plasma containing scalar charge carriers in the leading logarithmic order in coupling constant $\alpha$ using the Boltzmann kinetic equation. The leading contribution to the collision integral is due to the M{\o}ller and Bhabha scattering of scalar particles with a singular cross section in the region of small momentum transfer. Regularizing this singularity by taking into account the hard thermal loop corrections to the propagators of intermediate particles, we derive the second order differential equation which determines the kinetic function. We solve this equation numerically and also use a variational approach in order to find a simple analytical formula for the conductivity. It has the standard parametric dependence on the coupling constant $\sigma\approx 2.38\, T/(\alpha \log\alpha^{-1})$ with the prefactor taking a somewhat lower value compared to the fermionic case. Finally, we consider the general case of hot Abelian plasma with an arbitrary number of scalar and fermionic particle species and derive the simple analytical formula for its conductivity., Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables

We study the generation of electromagnetic fields during inflation when the conformal invariance of Maxwell's action is broken by the kinetic coupling $f^{2}(\phi)F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$ of the electromagnetic field to the inflaton field $\phi$. We consider the case where the coupling function $f(\phi)$ decreases in time during inflation and, as a result, the electric component of the energy density dominates over the magnetic one. The system of equations which governs the joint evolution of the scale factor, inflaton field, and electric energy density is derived. The backreaction occurs when the electric energy density becomes as large as the product of the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ and inflaton energy density, $\rho_{E}\sim \epsilon \rho_{\rm inf}$. It affects the inflaton field evolution and leads to the scale-invariant electric power spectrum and the magnetic one which is blue with the spectral index $n_{B}=2$ for any decreasing coupling function. This gives an upper limit on the present-day value of observed magnetic fields below $10^{-22}\,{\rm G}$. It is worth emphasizing that since the effective electric charge of particles $e_{\rm eff}=e/f$ is suppressed by the coupling function, the Schwinger effect becomes important only at the late stages of inflation when the inflaton field is close to the minimum of its potential. The Schwinger effect abruptly decreases the value of the electric field, helping to finish the inflation stage and enter the stage of preheating. It effectively produces the charged particles, implementing the Schwinger reheating scenario even before the fast oscillations of the inflaton. The numerical analysis is carried out in the Starobinsky model of inflation for the powerlike $f\propto a^{\alpha}$ and Ratra-type $f=\exp(\beta\phi/M_{p})$ coupling functions., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures

We review the theoretical and experimental results connected with the electron states in two-dimensional Dirac systems paying a special attention to the atomic collapse in graphene. Two-electron bound states of a Coulomb impurity are considered too. A rather subtle role of a magnetic field in the supercritical charge problem in graphene is discussed. The electron states in the field of two equally charged impurities are studied and the conditions for supercritical instability to occur are determined. It is shown that the supercriticality of novel type is realized in gapped graphene with two unlikely charged impurities. For sufficiently large charges of impurities, it is found that the wave function of the occupied electron bound state of the highest energy changes its localization from the negatively charged impurity to the positively charged one as the distance between the impurities increases. The specifics of the atomic collapse in bilayer graphene is considered and it is shown that the atomic collapse in this material is not related to the phenomenon of the fall-to-center., Comment: Review Article, 39 pages, 14 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1311.0064, arXiv:1401.5992, arXiv:1611.05221, arXiv:1510.02890, arXiv:1406.5770 by other authors

In the low-energy two-band as well as four-band continuum models, we study the supercritical instability in gapped bilayer graphene in the field of a charged impurity. It is found that the screening effects are crucially important in bilayer graphene. If they are neglected, then the critical value for the impurity charge as the lowest-energy bound state dives into the lower continuum tends to zero as the gap $\Delta$ vanishes. If the screened Coulomb interaction is considered, then the critical charge tends to a finite value for $\Delta \to 0$. The different scalings of the kinetic energy of quasiparticles and the Coulomb interaction with respect to the distance to the charged impurity ensure that the wave function of the electron bound state does not shrink toward the impurity as its charge increases. This results in the absence of the fall-to-center phenomenon in bilayer graphene although the supercritical instability is realized., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

By assuming the kinetic coupling $f^{2}(\phi)FF$ of the effective inflaton field $\phi$ with the electromagnetic field, we explore magnetogenesis during the inflation and preheating stages in the Starobinsky model. We consider the case of the exponential coupling function $f(\phi)=\exp(\alpha\phi/M_{p})$ and show that for $\alpha \sim 12-15$ it is possible to generate the large scale magnetic fields with strength $\gtrsim 10^{-15}$ Gauss at the present epoch. The spectrum of generated magnetic fields is blue with the spectral index $n=1+s$, $s>0$. We have found that for the relevant values of the coupling parameter, $\alpha=12-15$, model avoids the back-reaction problem for all relevant modes., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

The Dirac equation for an electron in a finite dipole potential has been studied within the method of linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO). The Coulomb potential of the nuclei that compose a dipole is regularized, by considering the finite nuclear size. It is shown that if the dipole momentum reaches a certain critical value, the novel type of supercriticality occurs; namely, the wave function of the highest occupied electron bound state changes its localization from the negatively charged nucleus to the positively charged one. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a spontaneous creation of an electron-positron pair in vacuum, with each of the created particles being in the bound state with the corresponding nucleus and partially screening it., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures

The electron states in the field of a charged impurity in graphene in a magnetic field are studied numerically. It is shown that a charged impurity removes the degeneracy of Landau levels converting them into bandlike structures. As the charge of impurity grows, the repulsion of sublevels of different Landau levels with the same value of orbital momentum takes place leading to the redistribution of the wave function profiles of these sublevels near the impurity. By studying the polarization effects, it is shown in agreement with the recent experiments that the effective charge of impurity can be very effectively tuned by chemical potential. If the chemical potential is situated inside a Landau level, then the charge of impurity is strongly diminished. In addition, the polarization function in this case has a peak at zero momentum, which leads to the sign-changing oscillations of the screened potential as a function of distance. If the chemical potential lies between the Landau levels, then the screened potential does not change sign, the screening is minimal, and the charged impurity can strongly affect the electron spectrum., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; final version published in PRB

We reveal a new type of supercritical behavior in gapped graphene with two oppositely charged impurities by studying the two-dimensional Dirac equation for quasiparticles with the Coulomb potential regularized at small distances accounting the lattice effects. By utilizing the variational Galerkin--Kantorovich method, we show that for supercritical electric dipole the wave function of the electron bound state changes its localization from the negatively charged impurity to the positively charged one as the distance between the impurities changes. Such a migration of the wave function corresponds to the electron and hole spontaneously created from the vacuum in bound states screening the positively and negatively charged impurities of the supercritical electric dipole, respectively. We generalize our results to a particle-hole asymmetric case, where the charges of impurities differ in signs and absolute values and demonstrate that the necessary energetic condition for the supercriticality of novel type to occur is that the energy levels of single positively and negatively charged impurities traverse together the energy distance separating the upper and lower continua. The robustness of the supercriticality of novel type is confirmed by the study of an exactly solvable 1D problem of the Dirac equation with the square well and barrier potential modeling an electric dipole potential., Comment: 15 pages, 13 Figures, and 3 video files in Supplemental Material. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1506.08379

We study the Dirac equation for quasiparticles in gapped graphene with two oppositely charged impurities by using the technique of linear combination of atomic orbitals and variational Galerkin--Kantorovich method. We show that for sufficiently large charges of impurities the wave function of the occupied electron bound state of the highest energy changes its localization from the negatively charged impurity to the positively charged one as the distance between the impurities increases. This migration of the electron wave function of supercritical electric dipole is a generalization of the familiar phenomenon of the atomic collapse of single charged impurity to the case where electron-hole pairs are spontaneously created from vacuum in bound states with charge impurities thus partially screening them., Comment: 8 pages, 6 Figures, and video; submitted to Europhysics Letters

In the continuum low energy model, we calculate the one-loop dynamical polarization functions in ABC-stacked (rhombohedral) $n$-layer graphene in a magnetic field. Neglecting the trigonal warping effects, they are derived as functions of wavevector and frequency at finite chemical potential, temperature, band gap, and the width of Landau levels. The analytic results are given in terms of digamma functions and generalized Laguerre polynomials and have the form of double sums over Landau levels. Various particular limits for polarization functions (static, clean, etc.) are discussed. The intralayer and interlayer screened Coulomb potentials are numerically calculated as functions of momentum and frequency., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, small changes, to match the version published in PRB

We study the supercritical instability in gapped graphene with two charged impurities separated by distance R using the two-dimensional Dirac equation for electron quasiparticles. Attention is paid to a situation when charges of impurities are subcritical, whereas their total charge exceeds a critical one. The critical distance R_{cr} in the system of two charged centers is defined as that at which the electron bound state with the lowest energy reaches the boundary of the lower continuum. A variational calculation of the critical distance R_{cr} separating the supercritical (RR_{cr}) regimes is carried out. It is shown that the critical distance R_{cr} increases as the quasiparticle gap decreases. The energy and width of a quasistationary state as functions of the distance between two impurities are derived in the quasiclassical approximation., Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, comments and references added, to match the published version