Neutrino-electron magnetohydrodynamics in an expanding universe

Perrone, L. M. and Gregori, G. and Reville, B. and Silva, L. O. and Bingham, R. (2021) Neutrino-electron magnetohydrodynamics in an expanding universe. Physical Review D, 104 (12). 123013. ISSN 1550-2368 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.123013)

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Abstract

We derive a new model for neutrino-plasma interactions in an expanding universe that incorporates the collective effects of the neutrinos on the plasma constituents. We start from the kinetic description of a multispecies plasma in the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric, where the particles are coupled to neutrinos through the charged- and neutral-current forms of the weak interaction. We then derive the fluid equations and specialize our model to (a) the lepton epoch, where we consider a pair electron-positron plasma interacting with electron (anti)neutrinos, and (b) after the electron-positron annihilation, where we model an electron-proton plasma and take the limit of slow ions and inertialess electrons to obtain a set of neutrino-electron magnetohydrodynamics equations. In both models, the dynamics of the plasma is affected by the neutrino motion through a ponderomotive force and, as a result, new terms appear in the induction equation that can act as a source for magnetic field generation in the early Universe. A brief discussion on the possible applications of our model is proposed.

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