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Neutrinos with Magnetic Moment: Depolarization Rate in Plasma
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Submitted 3 Mar 1997
abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review
The authors' main claim Assuming that big-bang nucleosynthesis constraints do not allow a right-handed neutrino in equilibrium we derive the limit $\mu<6.2\EE{-11}\mu_B$ on the neutrino magnetic moment.
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The abstract, sentence by sentence
Neutrinos with a magnetic moment $\mu$ change their helicity when interacting with an electromagnetic field. Various aspects of this effect have been described as spin precession, spin-flip scattering, and magnetic Cherenkov radiation. These perspectives are unified in an expression for the $\nu_L\to\nu_R$ transition rate which involves the correlators of the electromagnetic field distribution. Our general formula corrects a previous result and generalizes it to the case where the fields cannot be viewed as classical and where the momentum transfers need not be small. We evaluate our result explicitly for a relativistic QED plasma and determine the depolarization rate to leading order in the fine structure constant. Assuming that big-bang nucleosynthesis constraints do not allow a right-handed neutrino in equilibrium we derive the limit $\mu<6.2\EE{-11}\mu_B$ on the neutrino magnetic moment. Bounds on $\mu$ from a possible large scale magnetic fields are found to be more stringent even for very weak fields
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | Neutrinos with a magnetic moment $\mu$ change their helicity when interacting with an electromagnetic field. | background 1.00 | 0.06 | 0.03 | asserted 1.00 |
| s1 | Various aspects of this effect have been described as spin precession, spin-flip scattering, and magnetic Cherenkov radiation. | background 1.00 | 0.05 | 0.02 | asserted 0.99 |
| s2 | These perspectives are unified in an expression for the $\nu_L\to\nu_R$ transition rate which involves the correlators of the electromagnetic field distribution. | contribution 0.78 | 0.67 | 0.12 | asserted 1.00 |
| s3 | Our general formula corrects a previous result and generalizes it to the case where the fields cannot be viewed as classical and where the momentum transfers need not be small. | contribution 0.99 | 0.93 | 0.10 | asserted 1.00 |
| s4 | We evaluate our result explicitly for a relativistic QED plasma and determine the depolarization rate to leading order in the fine structure constant. | method 0.46 | 0.96 | 0.09 | asserted 1.00 |
| s5 | Assuming that big-bang nucleosynthesis constraints do not allow a right-handed neutrino in equilibrium we derive the limit $\mu<6.2\EE{-11}\mu_B$ on the neutrino magnetic moment. | result 0.98 | 0.93 | 0.62 | asserted 0.91 |
| s6 | Bounds on $\mu$ from a possible large scale magnetic fields are found to be more stringent even for very weak fields | result 0.92 | 0.89 | 0.20 | asserted 0.99 |
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The paper
Original abstract
Neutrinos with a magnetic moment $\mu$ change their helicity when interacting with an electromagnetic field. Various aspects of this effect have been described as spin precession, spin-flip scattering, and magnetic Cherenkov radiation. These perspectives are unified in an expression for the $\nu_L\to\nu_R$ transition rate which involves the correlators of the electromagnetic field distribution. Our general formula corrects a previous result and generalizes it to the case where the fields cannot be viewed as classical and where the momentum transfers need not be small. We evaluate our result explicitly for a relativistic QED plasma and determine the depolarization rate to leading order in the fine structure constant. Assuming that big-bang nucleosynthesis constraints do not allow a right-handed neutrino in equilibrium we derive the limit $\mu<6.2\EE{-11}\mu_B$ on the neutrino magnetic moment. Bounds on $\mu$ from a possible large scale magnetic fields are found to be more stringent even for very weak fields
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References
How the literature uses it
13 arXiv papers cite this in 26 sentences
Papers citing it · 16 sentences without a confident label
Contests it 1 paper
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Our work contains a careful calculation of the chirality-flipping rate, which was not treated consistently when an infrared (IR) divergence is involved in previous studies [ref] .
Neutrino Magnetic Moments Meet Precision $N_{\rm eff}$ Measurements · Introduction · contest 0.86
Uses its method or tool 2 papers
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In Ref. [ref] the regularization is provided by the thermal photon mass, $m_γ=e T/3$, which determines a low-momentum cut-off.
Strong cosmological constraints on the neutrino magnetic moment · RH neutrino production rate · 0.82
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If we are only concerned with the total rate, a full momentum integration that automatically combines the hard and soft regimes could be more efficient, as applied in Ref. [ref] .
Neutrino Magnetic Moments Meet Precision $N_{\rm eff}$ Measurements · Computation method · 0.91
Compares with it 2 papers
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After averaging the rates over a thermal neutrino distribution, we find that at $T= 100$ GeV the rate is [equation] For $T=10$ MeV, where the thermal bath includes only electrons, we find $⟨Γ⟩= 1.91 α μ^2 T^3$, to be compared with $⟨Γ⟩= 1.81 αμ^2 T^3$ in Ref. [ref] .
Strong cosmological constraints on the neutrino magnetic moment · RH neutrino production rate · 1.00
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Ours is about $50%$ smaller and the difference is due to that Ref. [ref] adopted the time-ordered self-energy.
Neutrino Magnetic Moments Meet Precision $N_{\rm eff}$ Measurements · Full result of the collision rate · 0.86
Cites it as background 3 papers
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So far, neutrino magnetic moments have proven too small to be detectable, but numerous constraints have been derived from neutrino experiments [ref] as well as from astrophysical [ref] and cosmological arguments [ref] .
Magnetic Moments of Astrophysical Neutrinos · Introduction · 0.91
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Production of light RH$ν$s through the neutrino magnetic moment was studied in [ref] and recently reassessed in [ref] , both assuming thermal freeze-out.
Constraining UV freeze-in of light relics with current and next-generation CMB observations · Introduction · 0.93
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Nonstandard neutrino interactions have been investigated, including neutrino electromagnetic [ref] and nonstandard neutrino electron coupling [ref] .
A short survey of matter-antimatter evolution in the primordial universe · Effective number of neutrinos · 0.87
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