ELECTRIC CHARGE ASYMMETRY OF THE UNIVERSE AND MAGNETIC-FIELD GENERATION

If at an early stage of the evolution of the Universe the gauge symmet ry of electromagnetism was spontaneously broken, an electric charge as ymmetry would develop. After restoration of gauge invariance, the asym metry should disappear so that the net electric charge density must va nish, the compensating charge being produced from the Higgs vacuum in the form of heavy charged particles. Energetic products of their decay would create an electric current and a local charge asymmetry. Altern atively, such an asymmetry could be created even if the electric curre nt was always conserved but an asymmetry in another nonconserved charg e existed. The primary currents which created the asymmetry as well as those damping it via plasma discharge could generate chaotic magnetic fields on astronomically interesting scales. These fields might be la rge enough to seed the observed magnetic fields in galaxies via a prot ogalactic dynamo.