Magnetic field generation from self-consistent collective neutrino-plasma interactions

Neutrino oscillations and instabilities in degenerate relativistic astrophysical plasmas

We set up a proposal to extend significantly recent works on neutrino-plasma interaction, allowing the possibility of deep degenerate and relativistic electrons, which are often present in compact stars such as high-density white dwarfs. The methodology involves the covariant hydrodynamic formulation of ultradense plasmas. We propose the generalization of previous studies, on the interaction between ion-acoustic waves and resonant neutrino flavor oscillations in a mixed neutrino beam, admitting degenerate and relativistic electron populations. Destabilization of the ion acoustic wave has higher growth rates, thanks to the very high densities present in plasmas under these extreme conditions. We take into account applications to white dwarf stars in the process of collapsing, producing type II supernovas.

Coupling between ion-acoustic waves and neutrino oscillations

The work investigates the coupling between ion-acoustic waves and neutrino flavor oscillations in a nonrelativistic electron-ion plasma under the influence of a mixed neutrino beam. Neutrino oscillations are mediated by the flavor polarization vector dynamics in a material medium. The linear dispersion relation around homogeneous static equilibria is developed. When resonant with the ion-acoustic mode, the neutrino flavor oscillations can transfer energy to the plasma exciting a new fast unstable mode in extreme astrophysical scenarios. The growth rate and the unstable wavelengths are determined in typical type II supernova parameters. The predictions can be useful for a new indirect probe on neutrino oscillations in nature.

Large-scale magnetic field generation by alpha effect driven by collective neutrino-plasma interaction

We suggest a new mechanism for the generation of a large-scale magnetic field in the hot plasma of the early Universe which is based on parity violation in weak interactions and depends neither on the helicity of matter turbulence resulting in the standard alpha effect nor on general rotation. The mechanism can result in a self-excitation of an (almost) uniform cosmological magnetic field.