Neutrino-photon scattering and its crossed processes in a background magnetic field

Abstract

We study the neutrino-photon processes such as ${\hat{I}}^3{\hat{I}}^3\to \hat{I}½\bar{\hat{I}}½$ and $\hat{I}½{\hat{I}}^3\to \hat{I}½{\hat{I}}^3$ in a background magnetic field smaller than the critical magnetic field $B_c\equiv m_e^2/e$. Using Schwinger's proper-time method, we extract leading magnetic-field contributions to the above processes. Our result is valid throughout the kinematic regime where both neutrino and photon energies are significantly smaller than $m_W$. We briefly discuss the astrophysical implications of our result.

Revtex, 10 pages, 4 ps figures, to appear in Phys. Lett. B