2004/02/12 by Prashanth Jaikumar, K. R. S. Balaji, Charles Gale
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Bremsstrahlung #Condensed matter physics #Dipole #Electron #Electron magnetic dipole moment #Electroweak interaction #Magnetic dipole #Magnetic moment #Measurements of neutrino speed #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino oscillation #Neutron #Neutron magnetic moment #Neutron star #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Solar neutrino #Solar neutrino problem #astro-ph #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.69.055804
published as Phys.Rev. C69 (2004) 055804 · 9 pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2004/02/12 · openalex publication_date 2004/05/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Neutrino emission drives neutron star cooling for the first several hundreds of years after its birth. Given the low-energy (\ensuremath∼keV) nature of this process, one expects very few nonstandard particle-physics contributions which could affect this rate. Requiring that any new physics contributions involve light degrees of freedom, one of the likely candidates which can affect the cooling process would be a nonzero magnetic moment for the neutrino. To illustrate, we compute the emission rate for neutrino pair bremsstrahlung in neutron-neutron scattering through photon-neutrino magnetic moment coupling. We also present analogous differential rates for neutrino scattering off nucleons and electrons that determine neutrino opacities in supernovae. Employing current upper bounds from collider experiments on the \ensuremathτ magnetic moment, we find that the neutrino emission rate can exceed the rate through neutral current electroweak interaction by a factor 2, signaling the importance of new particle physics input to a standard calculation of relevance to neutron star cooling. However, astrophysical bounds on the neutrino magnetic moment imply smaller effects.