Long-range forces and neutrino mass

Journal Article · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Annals of Physics (New York)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1006/aphy.1996.0044· OSTI ID:285833

Fischbach, E ^[1]

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1. Physics Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-1396 (United States)

We explore the limits on neutrino mass which follow from a study of the long-range forces that arise from the exchange of massless or ultra-light neutrinos. Although the 2-body neutrino-exchange force is unobservably small, the many-body force can generate a very large energy density in neutron stars and white dwarfs. We discuss the novel features of neutrino-exchange forces which lead to large many-body effects, and present the formalism that allows these effects to be calculated explicitly in the Standard Model. After considering, and excluding, several possibilities for avoiding the unphysically large contributions from the exchange of massless neutrinos, we develop a formalism to describe the exchange of massive neutrinos. It is shown that the stability of both neutron stars and white dwarfs in the presence of many-body neutrino-exchange forces implies a lower bound, {ital m}{vert_bar}{approx_gt}0.4 eV/{ital c}{sup 2} on the mass {ital m} of any neutrino. {copyright} 1996 by Academic Press, Inc.

• Research Organization: Purdue Research Foundation
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ER01428
• OSTI ID: 285833
• Journal Information: Annals of Physics (New York), Journal Name: Annals of Physics (New York) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 247; ISSN 0003-4916; ISSN APNYA6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
EXCHANGE INTERACTIONS
INTERACTION RANGE
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
NEUTRINOS
NEUTRON STARS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
POTENTIALS
REST MASS
STANDARD MODEL
WHITE DWARF STARS