Pulsar acceleration by asymmetric emission of sterile neutrinos

Abstract

A convincing explanation for the observed pulsar large peculiar velocities is still missing. We argue that any viable particle physics solution would most likely involve the resonant production of a non-interacting neutrino ${\nu }_s$ of mass $m_{{\nu }_s}\sim 20$--50 keV. We propose a model where anisotropic magnetic field configurations strongly bias the resonant spin flavour precession of tau antineutrinos into ${\nu }_s$. For internal magnetic fields $B_{int} \gsim 10^{15}$ G a ${\bar{\nu }}_{\tau }$-${\nu }_s$ transition magnetic moment of the order of $10^{-12}$ Bohr magnetons is required. The asymmetric emission of ${\nu }_s$ from the core can produce sizeable natal kicks and account for recoil velocities of several hundred kilometers per second.

14 pages, AASTEX, 2 figures (uses epsfig). Minor typos corrected. Added acknowledgments to the funding institutes BID and Colciencias

References in corpus (1)

• Electron-, Mu-, and Tau-Number Conservation in a Supernova Core

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• Theoretical Support for the Hydrodynamic Mechanism of Pulsar Kicks
• Active-sterile neutrino oscillations and pulsar kicks
• Transition Magnetic Moments and Collective Neutrino Oscillations:Three-Flavor Effects and Detectability
• Pulsar Kicks Induced by Spin Flavor Oscillations of Neutrinos in Gravitational Fields
• Delayed pulsar kicks from the emission of sterile neutrinos
• Effects of CPT and Lorentz Invariance Violation on Pulsar Kicks