Neutrino-driven electrostatic instabilities in a magnetized plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how neutrino beams can induce electrostatic instabilities in magnetized plasmas, revealing that magnetic fields significantly enhance the instability growth rate, especially relevant for supernova environments.

Contribution

It introduces a model for neutrino-driven electrostatic instabilities in magnetized plasmas, incorporating the effects of magnetic fields on the growth rate, applicable to supernova conditions.

Findings

Magnetic fields increase the instability growth rate.

Growth rate depends on wave vector orientation relative to magnetic field.

Oblique propagation instabilities are also characterized.

Abstract

The destabilizing role of neutrino beams on the Trivelpiece-Gould modes is considered, assuming electrostatic perturbations in a magnetized plasma composed by electrons in a neutralizing ionic background, coupled to a neutrino species by means of an effective neutrino force arising from the electro-weak interaction. The magnetic field is found to significantly improve the linear instability growth rate, as calculated for Supernova type II environments. On the formal level, for wave vector parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field the instability growth rate is found from the unmagnetized case replacing the plasma frequency by the appropriated Trivelpiece-Gould frequency. The growth rate associated with oblique propagation is also obtained.