Collective effects inνν¯synchrotron radiation from neutron stars

Abstract

We have considered the collective effects in synchrotron radiation from an ultrarelativistic degenerate electron gas in neutron stars with strong magnetic fields. For this problem we apply a calculation method which explicitly makes use of the fact that the radiating electron moves semiclassically, but takes into account the interaction among particles in a quantum way. First we apply this method to calculate synchrotron radiation by an ultrarelativistic electron in vacuum and we compare this result with that obtained previously by other techniques. When a degenerate plasma is considered, we show that collective effects lead to an essential enhancement ͑about three times͒ of the vector weak-current contribution to neutrino pair emissivity. ͓S0556-2821͑99͒05902-0͔PACS number͑s͒: 97.60. Jd, 13.10.ϩq, 52.25.Tx, 95.30.Cq 1 Note that in the opposite case TӶ 0 , the population of excited Landau levels above the Fermi energy exponentially tends to zero, and the synchrotron radiation becomes not relevant as a mechanism of neutrino pair emission.

Weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons and related processes

“…This process is of relevance in some astrophysical situations as, e.g., in the cooling of neutron stars. Eventually we compare our results in the proper limit with the ones in the literature obtained by quantizing electrons in a background magnetic field [8]- [10].…”

“…This can be seen by tracing out (i.e., integrating) one of the momentum variables in Eq. (4.7): 8) and noting that this expression is independent of (θ j ,φ j ), where j, l = 1 and 2 are associated with particles f 1 andf 2 . The energy distribution of emitted particles is given by:…”

“…The differential emission rate of ν eνe pairs in a background magnetic field was calculated in detail [2] (see Ref. [8] The parameters C V and C A give the vector and axial contributions to the electric current, respectively. Using Eqs.…”

“…The differential emission rate of ν e νe pairs in a background magnetic field was calculated in detail [2] (see Ref. [8] for the form used below):…”

Semiclassical approach to the decay of protons in circular motion under the influence of gravitational fields

“…As a consistency check of our Eq. (4.15), let us apply it to analyze the emission of neutrino-antineutrino pairs from accelerated electrons: e − → e − ν e νe and compare the results in the proper limit with the ones in the literature obtained when the electrons are quantized in a background magnetic field (see, e.g., [21]- [25] and references therein). (Comprehensive accounts on γ and ν − ν synchrotron radiation emitted from electrons in magnetic fields can be found, e.g., in Ref.…”