Evolution of Primordial Neutrino Helicities in Astrophysical Magnetic Fields and Implications for their Detection

Abstract

Since decoupling in the early universe in helicity states, primordial neutrinos propagating in astrophysical magnetic fields precess and undergo helicity changes. In view of the XENON1T experiment possibly finding a large magnetic moment of solar neutrinos, we estimate the helicity flipping for relic neutrinos in both cosmic and galactic magnetic fields. The flipping probability is sensitive both to the neutrino magnetic moment and the structure of the magnetic fields, thus potentially a probe of the fields. As we find, even a magnetic moment well below that suggested by XENON1T could significantly affect relic neutrino helicities and their detection rate via inverse tritium beta decay.

arXiv comment7 pages, 1 figure, typos corrected, references added, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
• Progress on Cosmological Magnetic Fields
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• Spin-Flavor Oscillations of Relic Neutrinos in Primordial Magnetic Field
• Quantum coherence in neutrino spin-flavor oscillations
• Inverse Tritium Beta Decay with Relic Neutrinos, Solar Neutrinos, and a 51Cr Source