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Sep 24 – 29, 2023
US/Eastern timezone

Helicity of Relic Neutrinos

Sep 25, 2023, 4:50 PM
20m
Grand Ballroom 2 (Durham Convention Center)

Grand Ballroom 2

Durham Convention Center

Talk Fundamental Symmetries and Spin Physics Beyond the Standard Model Fundamental Symmetries and Spin Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Speaker

Jen-Chieh Peng (University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamapign)

Description

Neutrinos in the early Universe decoupled essentially in helicity eigenstates. As they propagate through the Universe, their helicities could be modified via two effects. First, neutrinos with a finite magnetic moment would rotate their spins with respect to their momenta as they encounter cosmic magnetic fields, modifying their helicities. Second, the bending of neutrino's spin by a gravitational field lags the bending of its momentum, again modifying its helicity. We calculate both effects and investigate the implications of the helicity modification on the detection of relic neutrinos using the Inverse Tritium Beta Decay (ITBD) reaction. We find that the ITBD rate depends sensitively on the neutrino mass hierarchy and on the Dirac or Majorana nature of the neutrinos.

Primary author

Jen-Chieh Peng (University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamapign)

Co-author

Prof. Gordon Baym (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Presentation materials