Optical Activity of a Neutrino Gas

Abstract

For photons that propagate through a gas of neutrinos with a non-zero chemical potential, the left-handed and right-handed polarization modes acquire different dispersion relations. This is due to the CP and CPT-odd terms induced by such a background on the photon self-energy. We present a detailed calculation of this effect, which does not depend on any physical assumptions beyond those of the standard electroweak model. Some possible cosmological and astrophysical implications of our results are considered in several contexts, including the recent discussions regarding the rotation of the plane of polarization of electromagnetic waves over cosmological distances.

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References in corpus (5)

• Cosmic Ray and Neutrino Tests of Special Relativity
• Indication of Anisotropy in Electromagnetic Propagation over Cosmological Distances
• Is there evidence for cosmic anisotropy in the polarization of distant radio sources?
• Observational Evidence Against Birefringence Over Cosmological Distances
• Comment on the Appropriate Null Hypothesis for Cosmological Birefringence

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Lorentz and CPT violations from Chern-Simons modifications of QED
• Instability of magnetic fields in electroweak plasma driven by neutrino asymmetries
• Probing angle of birefringence due to long range axion hair from pulsars
• CMB circular and B-mode polarization from new interactions
• Neutrino number asymmetry and cosmological birefringence
• Upper bounds on the photon mass
• Can we explain cosmic birefringence without a new light field beyond Standard Model?
• Gravitational coupling of neutrinos in a medium
• Photon-Neutrino Interactions
• Impossibility of the strong magnetic fields generation in an electron-positron plasma
• Nucleon contribution to the induced charge of neutrinos in a matter background and a magnetic field
• Optical Activity From Extra Dimension
• Electromagnetic properties of a neutrino stream
• Photons, neutrinos and optical activity
• Optical activity of neutrinos and antineutrinos
• Towards interferometry of neutrino electromagnetism
• Electromagnetic effects of neutrinos in an electron gas
• Birefringence of electromagnetic waves in the relic neutrino gas
• Magnetized matter effects on dilaton photon mixing
• Electromagnetic instability induced by neutrino interaction
• Generation of cosmic magnetic fields in electroweak plasma
• Bounds on the photon mass via the Shapiro effect in the solar system
• Neutrino-Induced Polarization Rotation in Active Galactic Nuclei Plasmas
• Kinetic theory formulation of the $P$- and $CP$-odd terms in the photon self-energy in a medium