Physical origin of "chaoticity" of neutrino asymmetry

We consider the indeterminacy in the sign of the neutrino asymmetry generated by active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early universe. The dynamics of asymmetry growth is discussed in detail and the indeterminacy in the final sign of the asymmetry is shown to be a real physical phenomenon. Recently published contradicting results are carefully considered and the underlying assumptions leading to the disagreement are resolved.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 4 eps figures, uses cite.st

The Effective Matter Potential for Highly Relativistic Neutrinos

We investigate matter effects on highly relativistic neutrinos. The self-energy of neutrinos is determined in an electron or neutrino background taking into account resonance and finite width effects of the gauge bosons. We find minor changes compared to the formerly used formula for the propagator function and large deviations of the effective width from the decay width of the gauge bosons considering higher moments of the electron or neutrino distribution function.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, latex. Final version published in Phys. Lett.

Lepton asymmetry creation in the Early Universe

Oscillations of active to sterile neutrinos with a small mixing angle sin 2 \theta < 10^{-2} could generate a large lepton asymmetry in the Early Universe. The final order of magnitude of the lepton asymmetry \eta is mainly determined by its growth in the last stage of evolution, the so called power-law regime. There exist two contradictory results in the literature, \eta \propto T^{-1} and \eta \propto T^{-4}, where T is the background medium temperature. In the first case, the lepton asymmetry does not exceed values of 10^{-4} for |\delta m^2| < 1 eV^2, while in the second case it can become larger than 10^{-1}. In this work we analytically investigate the case \eta \propto T^{-1}, using a new approach to solve the kinetic equations. We find that the power-law solution \eta \propto T^{-1} is not self-consistent. Instead, we find the power law \eta \propto T^{-11/3} to be a good approximation, which leads to a large final asymmetry.Comment: 33 pp, 7 figure

Tunneling in a very slow ion-molecule reaction

Quantum tunneling reactions play a significant role in chemistry when classical pathways are energetically forbidden, be it in gas phase reactions, surface diffusion, or liquid phase chemistry. In general, such tunneling reactions are challenging to calculate theoretically, given the high dimensionality of the quantum dynamics, and also very difficult to identify experimentally. Hydrogenic systems, however, allow for accurate first-principles calculations. In this way the rate of the gas phase proton transfer tunneling reaction of hydrogen molecules with deuterium anions, H_2 + D^- --> H^- + HD, has been calculated, but has so far lacked experimental verification. Here we present high-sensitivity measurements of the reaction rate carried out in a cryogenic 22-pole ion trap. We observe an extremely low rate constant of (5.2 +- 1.6) x 10^(-20) cm^3/s. This measured value agrees with quantum tunneling calculations, serving as a benchmark for molecular theory and advancing the understanding of fundamental collision processes. A deviation of the reaction rate from linear scaling, which is observed at high H_2 densities, can be traced back to previously unobserved heating dynamics in radiofrequency ion traps

High energy neutrino spin light

The quantum theory of spin light (electromagnetic radiation emitted by a Dirac massive neutrino propagating in dense matter due to the weak interaction of a neutrino with background fermions) is developed. In contrast to the Cherenkov radiation, this effect does not disappear even if the medium refractive index is assumed to be equal to unity. The formulas for the transition rate and the total radiation power are obtained. It is found out that radiation of photons is possible only when the sign of the particle helicity is opposite to that of the effective potential describing the interaction of a neutrino (antineutrino) with the background medium. Due to the radiative self-polarization the radiating particle can change its helicity. As a result, the active left-handed polarized neutrino (right-handed polarized antineutrino) converting to the state with inverse helicity can become practically ``sterile''. Since the sign of the effective potential depends on the neutrino flavor and the matter structure, the spin light can change a ratio of active neutrinos of different flavors. In the ultra relativistic approach, the radiated photons averaged energy is equal to one third of the initial neutrino energy, and two thirds of the energy are carried out by the final ``sterile'' neutrinos.Comment: 12 pages, Latex. To appear in Phys. Lett.