Magnetic Fields in the Aftermath of Phase Transitions

The COSLAB effort has focussed on the formation of topological defects during phase transitions. Yet there is another potentially interesting signature of cosmological phase transitions, which also deserves study in the lab. This is the generation of magnetic fields during phase transitions. In particular, cosmological phase transitions that also lead to preferential production of matter over antimatter (``baryogenesis''), are expected to produce helical (left-handed) magnetic fields. The study of analogous processes in the lab can yield important insight into the production of helical magnetic fields, and the observation of such fields in the universe can be invaluable for both particle physics and cosmology.Comment: 9 pages. Contribution to the Royal Society Discussion Meeting ``Cosmology Meets Condensed Matter'', January 28-29, 200

Crossed S-matrices and Character Sheaves on Unipotent Groups

Let $\mathtt{k}$ be an algebraic closure of a finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ of characteristic $p$. Let $G$ be a connected unipotent group over $\mathtt{k}$ equipped with an $\mathbb{F}_q$-structure given by a Frobenius map $F:G\to G$. We will denote the corresponding algebraic group defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ by $G_0$. Character sheaves on $G$ are certain objects in the triangulated braided monoidal category $\mathscr{D}_G(G)$ of bounded conjugation equivariant $\bar{\mathbb{Q}}_l$-complexes (where $l\neq p$ is a prime number) on $G$. Boyarchenko has proved that the "trace of Frobenius" functions associated with $F$-stable character sheaves on $G$ form an orthonormal basis of the space of class functions on $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ and that the matrix relating this basis to the basis formed by the irreducible characters of $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ is block diagonal with "small" blocks. In this paper we describe these block matrices and interpret them as certain "crossed $S$-matrices". We also derive a formula for the dimensions of the irreducible representations of $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ that correspond to one such block in terms of certain modular categorical data associated with that block. In fact we will formulate and prove more general results which hold for possibly disconnected groups $G$ such that $G^\circ$ is unipotent. To prove our results, we will establish a formula (which holds for any algebraic group $G$) which expresses the inner product of the "trace of Frobenius" function of any $F$-stable object of $\mathscr{D}_G(G)$ with any character of $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ (or of any of its pure inner forms) in terms of certain categorical operations.Comment: 37 pages. Added a section about certain Grothendieck rings. Added some example