Cherenkov radiation by neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates how massless neutrinos can produce Cherenkov radiation in a magnetic field, revealing a rare process with specific rate calculations under certain magnetic field strengths.

Contribution

It demonstrates the possibility of neutrino Cherenkov radiation in a magnetic field with standard-model neutrinos, including the effects of photon dispersion relation modifications.

Findings

Cherenkov rate is approximately 6×10^{-11} s^{-1} for specified conditions.

Magnetic field induces an effective neutrino-photon vertex and modifies photon dispersion.

The process occurs for magnetic fields around 4.41×10^{13} Gauss and neutrino energies near 1 MeV.

Abstract

We discuss the Cherenkov process $\nu\to\nu\gamma$ in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field. The neutrinos are taken to be massless with only standard-model couplings. The magnetic field fulfills the dual purpose of inducing an effective neutrino-photon vertex and of modifying the photon dispersion relation such that the Cherenkov condition $\omega<|{\bf k}|$ is fulfilled. For a field strength $B_{\rm crit}=m_e^2/e=4.41\times10^{13} Gauss$ and for $E=2m_e$ the Cherenkov rate is about $6\times10^{-11}s^{-1}$.