Galvano-rotational effect induced by electroweak interactions in pulsars

TL;DR

This paper predicts a new galvano-rotational effect caused by electroweak interactions in rotating astrophysical matter, leading to electric currents and magnetic field generation in pulsars and compact stars.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effect where electroweak interactions induce electric currents along rotation axes in dense matter, with potential astrophysical implications.

Findings

Electric current flows along the rotation axis in rotating matter.

The effect can generate significant toroidal magnetic fields in pulsars.

Potential explanation for pulsar kicks via asymmetric neutrino emission.

Abstract

We study electroweakly interacting particles in rotating matter. The existence of the electric current along the axis of the matter rotation is predicted in this system. This new galvano-rotational effect is caused by the parity violating interaction between massless charged particles in the rotating matter. We start with the exact solution of the Dirac equation for a fermion involved in the electroweak interaction in the rotating frame. This equation includes the noninertial effects. Then, using the obtained solution, we derive the induced electric current which turns out to flow along the rotation axis. We study the possibility of the appearance of the galvano-rotational effect in dense matter of compact astrophysical objects. The particular example of neutron and hypothetical quark stars is discussed. It is shown that, using this effect, one can expect the generation of toroidal magnetic fields comparable with poloidal ones in old millisecond pulsars. We also briefly discuss the generation of the magnetic helicity in these stars. Finally we analyze the possibility to apply the galvano-rotational effect for the description of the asymmetric neutrino emission from a neutron star to explain pulsars kicks.