Radiative decay of keV-mass sterile neutrinos in a strongly magnetized plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong magnetic fields and plasma conditions affect the radiative decay rate of 10 keV sterile neutrinos, revealing suppression effects due to magnetic fields.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of sterile neutrino decay in magnetized plasma, including photon dispersion modifications and comparison with unmagnetized scenarios.

Findings

Strong magnetic fields suppress plasma's catalyzing effect on decay rate.

Decay rates depend on electron density and magnetic field strength.

Analysis covers both relativistic and non-relativistic plasma regimes.

Abstract

The radiative decay of sterile neutrinos with typical masses of 10 keV is investigated in the presence of a strong magnetic field and degenerate plasma. Full account is taken of the strongly modified photon dispersion relation relative to vacuum. The limiting cases of relativistic and non-relativistic plasma are analyzed. The decay rate in a strongly magnetized plasma as a function of the electron number density is compared with the un-magnetized case. We find that a strong magnetic field suppresses the catalyzing influence of the plasma on the decay rate.