Neutrino ground state in a dense star

Journal Article · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.57.5970· OSTI ID:627934

Kiers, K ^[1]; Tytgat, M H ^[2]

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1. High Energy Theory, Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York11973-5000 (United States)
2. High Energy Theory, Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York11973-5000

It has recently been argued that long range forces due to the exchange of massless neutrinos give rise to a very large self-energy in a dense, finite-ranged, weakly charged medium. Such an effect, if real, would destabilize a neutron star. To address this issue we have studied the related problem of a massless neutrino field in the presence of an external, static electroweak potential of finite range. To be precise, we have computed to one loop the exact vacuum energy for the case of a spherical square well potential of depth {alpha} and radius R. For small wells, the vacuum energy is reliably determined by a perturbative expansion in the external potential. For large wells, however, the perturbative expansion breaks down. A manifestation of this breakdown is that the vacuum carries a non-zero neutrino charge. The energy and neutrino charge of the ground state are, to a good approximation for large wells, those of a neutrino condensate with chemical potential {mu}={alpha}. Our results demonstrate explicitly that long-range forces due to the exchange of massless neutrinos do not threaten the stability of neutron stars. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 627934
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 57; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
GROUND STATES
MASSLESS PARTICLES
NEUTRINOS
NEUTRON STARS
PERTURBATION THEORY
SELF-ENERGY
STABILITY
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
VACUUM STATES