Relativistic Mean-Field Treatment of Pulsar Kick from Neutrino Propagation in Magnetized Proto-Neutron

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong magnetic fields in proto-neutron stars cause asymmetric neutrino absorption, potentially explaining pulsar velocities through relativistic mean-field calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic mean-field approach to quantify neutrino absorption asymmetries in magnetized neutron-star matter, linking magnetic fields to pulsar kicks.

Findings

Neutrino absorption asymmetry can reach 2.2% of total neutrino momentum.

Asymmetry in neutrino absorption can generate pulsar kick velocities comparable to observed values.

Magnetic field effects significantly influence neutrino propagation in dense stellar matter.

Abstract

We make a perturbative calculation of neutrino scattering and absorption in hot and dense hyperonic neutron-star matter in the presence of a strong magnetic Field. We calculate that the absorption cross-sections in a fully relativistic mean-field theory. We find that there is a remarkable angular dependence, i.e. the neutrino absorption strength is reduced in a direction parallel to the magnetic Field and enhanced in the opposite direction. This asymmetry in the neutrino absorption is estimated to be as much as 2.2 % of the entire neutrino momentum for an interior magnetic Field of 2 x 10^{17} G. The pulsar kick velocities associated with this asymmetry are shown to be comparable to observed velocities.