Anomaly induced cooling of Neutron Stars: A Standard Model contribution

TL;DR

This paper explores a Standard Model process involving neutrino pair emission in neutron stars, showing it can significantly influence their cooling rates, especially in proto-neutron stars, by adding a previously underappreciated mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Standard Model process for neutrino emission in neutron stars, highlighting its potential dominance in proto-neutron star cooling.

Findings

The process can be comparable to known neutrino emission mechanisms.

It may dominate the cooling in proto-neutron stars.

Standard Model processes are more diverse than previously thought.

Abstract

Young neutron stars cool via the emission of neutrinos from their core. A precise understanding of all the different processes producing neutrinos in the hot and degenerate matter is essential for assessing the cooling rate of such stars. The main Standard Model processes contributing to this effect are $\nu$ bremsstrahlung, mURCA among others. In this paper, we investigate another Standard Model process initiated by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term, leading to the emission of neutrino pairs via $N\gamma\to N\nu\bar\nu$. We find that for proto-neutron stars, such processes, with degenerate neutrons, can be comparable and even dominate over the prototypical and well-known cooling mechanisms.