Strong cosmological constraints on the neutrino magnetic moment
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2022
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| _version_ | 1866929416816295936 |
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| author | Carenza, Pierluca Lucente, Giuseppe Gerbino, Martina Giannotti, Maurizio Lattanzi, Massimiliano |
| author_facet | Carenza, Pierluca Lucente, Giuseppe Gerbino, Martina Giannotti, Maurizio Lattanzi, Massimiliano |
| contents | A sizable magnetic moment for neutrinos would be evidence of exotic physics. In the early Universe, left-handed neutrinos with a magnetic moment would interact with electromagnetic fields in the primordial plasma, flipping their helicity and producing a population of right-handed (RH) neutrinos. In this work, we present a new calculation of the production rate of RH neutrinos in a multi-component primordial plasma and quantify their contribution to the total energy density of relativistic species at early times, stressing the implications of the dependence on the initial time for production. We find that current cosmological data exclude values of the magnetic moment $μ\gtrsim 1.6\times 10^{-11}~μ_B$, while future cosmological experiments will be able to probe non-thermal production of RH neutrinos, becoming competitive with stellar limits. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2211_10432 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Strong cosmological constraints on the neutrino magnetic moment Carenza, Pierluca Lucente, Giuseppe Gerbino, Martina Giannotti, Maurizio Lattanzi, Massimiliano High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics A sizable magnetic moment for neutrinos would be evidence of exotic physics. In the early Universe, left-handed neutrinos with a magnetic moment would interact with electromagnetic fields in the primordial plasma, flipping their helicity and producing a population of right-handed (RH) neutrinos. In this work, we present a new calculation of the production rate of RH neutrinos in a multi-component primordial plasma and quantify their contribution to the total energy density of relativistic species at early times, stressing the implications of the dependence on the initial time for production. We find that current cosmological data exclude values of the magnetic moment $μ\gtrsim 1.6\times 10^{-11}~μ_B$, while future cosmological experiments will be able to probe non-thermal production of RH neutrinos, becoming competitive with stellar limits. |
| title | Strong cosmological constraints on the neutrino magnetic moment |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.10432 |