502 research outputs found
Thermal effects on the absorption of ultra-high energy neutrinos by the cosmic neutrino background
We use the formalism of finite-temperature field theory to study the
interactions of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos with the background of
relic neutrinos and to derive general expressions for the UHE neutrino
transmission probability. This approach allows us to take into account the
thermal effects introduced by the momentum distribution of the relic neutrinos.
We compare our results with the approximate expressions existing in the
literature and discuss the influence of thermal effects on the absorption dips
in the context of favoured neutrino mass schemes, as well as in the case of
clustered relic neutrinos.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. Prepared for the Proceedings of the 9th
International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics
(TAUP 2005), Zaragoza (Spain), September 10-14, 200
UHE neutrino damping in a thermal gas of relic neutrinos
We present a calculation of the damping of an ultra-energetic (UHE) cosmic
neutrino travelling through the thermal gas of relic neutrinos, using the
formalism of finite-temperature field theory. From the self-energy diagram due
to Z exchange, we obtain the annihilation cross section for an UHE neutrino
interacting with an antineutrino from the background. This method allows us to
derive the full expressions for the UHE neutrino transmission probability,
taking into account the momentum of relic neutrinos. We compare our results
with the approximations in use in the literature. We discuss the effect of
thermal motion on the shape of the absorption dips for different UHE neutrino
fluxes as well as in the context of relic neutrino clustering. We find that for
ratios of the neutrino mass to the relic background temperature or
smaller, the thermal broadening of the absorption lines could significantly
affect the determination of the neutrino mass and of the characteristics of the
population of UHE sources.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures. Typos corrected. More accurate treatment of the
interaction with relic neutrino clusters. Accepted for publication in
Astroparticle Physic
Langmuir Wave Generation Through A Neutrino Beam Instability
A standard version of a kinetic instability for the generation of Langmuir
waves by a beam of electrons is adapted to describe the analogous instability
due to a beam of neutrinos. The interaction between a Langmuir wave and a
neutrino is treated in the one-loop approximation to lowest order in an
expansion in in the standard electroweak model.
It is shown that this kinetic instability is far too weak to occur in a
suggested application to the reheating of the plasma behind a stalled shock in
a type II supernova (SN). This theory is also used to test the validity of a
previous analysis of a reactive neutrino beam instability and various
shortcomings of this theory are noted. In particular, it is noted that
relativistic plasma effects have a significant effect on the calculated growth
rates, and that any theoretical description of neutrino-plasma interactions
must be based directly on the electroweak theory. The basic scalings discussed
in this paper suggest that a more complete investigation of neutrino-plasma
processes should be undertaken to look for an efficient process capable of
driving the stalled shock of a type II SN.Comment: 23 pages, incl. 5 postscript figure
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