Spin-Flavor Oscillations of Relic Neutrinos in Primordial Magnetic Field

Abstract

The neutrino magnetic moment operator clasps a tiny but non-zero value within the standard model (SM) of particle physics and rather enhanced values in various new physics models. This generation of the magnetic moment (${\mu }_{\nu }$) is through quantum loop corrections which can exhibit spin-flavor oscillations in the presence of an external magnetic field. Also, several studies predict the existence of a primordial magnetic field (PMF) in the early universe, extending back to the era of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and before. The recent NANOGrav measurement can be considered as a strong indication of the presence of these PMFs. In this work, we consider the effect of the PMF on the flux of relic neutrinos. For Dirac neutrinos, we show that half of the active relic neutrinos can become sterile due to spin-flavor oscillations well before becoming non-relativistic owing to the expansion of the Universe and also before the timeline of the formation of galaxies and hence intergalactic fields, subject to the constraints on the combined value of ${\mu }_{\nu }$ and the cosmic magnetic field at the time of neutrino decoupling. For the upper limit of PMF allowed by the BBN, this can be true even if the experimental bounds on ${\mu }_{\nu }$ approaches a few times its SM value.

11 pages, 2 figures; matches accepted version in Phys. Rev. D

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• Estimate for the neutrino magnetic moment from pulsar kick velocities induced at the birth of strange quark matter neutron stars
• Quantum coherence in neutrino spin-flavor oscillations
• Resonant Spin-Flavor Precession of Sterile Neutrinos