Optical activity of relic neutrino-antineutrino gas

TL;DR

This paper investigates the optical activity caused by relic neutrino-antineutrino gas in the universe, focusing on the birefringence of electromagnetic waves due to parity violation within the Standard Model, and discusses recent theoretical advances and technical challenges.

Contribution

It revises the problem of electromagnetic birefringence in a chiral medium within the Standard Model, incorporating recent weak correction calculations to improve astrophysical estimates.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of neutrino-induced optical activity

Identification of technical limitations in current measurement methods

Potential implications for astrophysical observations

Abstract

We revise a problem of the birefringence of electromagnetic waves in a chiral medium in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics arising in an isotropic plasma due to parity violation. The recent calculations of the weak correction to the photon polarization operator in electroweak plasma allow significantly to improve some previous estimates of such effect in astrophysics. Nevertheless, it has remained beyond the abilities of the present technics yet.