Magnetic monopoles produced by first-order phase transition

arXiv:2610.29349 · astro-ph.CO, gr-qc, hep-lat, hep-ph · Submitted 2026-10-21 · Read on arXiv

astro-ph.CO, gr-qc, hep-lat, hep-ph

Submitted: 2026-10-21

Updated: 2026-10-21

Comments: 9+6 pages, 5+4 figures

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: We present the first 3D lattice simulations of magnetic monopole production from a first-order phase transition, using the Press-Ryden-Spergel method, capturing the subsequent annihilation stage and

Terminology

Abstract

We present the first 3D lattice simulations of magnetic monopole production from a first-order phase transition, using the Press-Ryden-Spergel method, capturing the subsequent annihilation stage and the entry into the scaling regime in an expanding universe. We establish the quantitative relationship between the initial bubble number and the residual monopole abundance, and calculate the magnetic field and gravitational wave power spectra sourced by monopole dynamics. Crucially, we find that the magnetic field spectrum displays a steep k-5 decline beyond the monopole size w M, whereas the peak of the gravitational wave spectrum aligns with the scale of the mean monopole separation d M, governed by k cubed and k-3 scalings on the low- and high-wavenumber sides of the peak, respectively. However, since the resulting magnetic field strength is excluded by blazar observations, magnetic monopoles cannot be the origin of primordial cosmic magnetic fields. Finally, we determine the allowed monopole mass under the constraints of the Parker bound (m M 2.18 times10 11, GeV) and dark matter abundance (m M 1.58 times10 12, GeV).

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