Spectra and rates of bremsstrahlung neutrino emission in stars

Abstract

We calculate the energy-differential rate for neutrino emission from electron-nucleus bremsstrahlung in stellar interiors taking into account the effects of electron screening and ionic correlations. We compare the energy-differential and the net rates, as well as the average $\bar{\nu}_e$ and $\bar{\nu}_x$ $(x = {\mu}, {\tau})$ energies, for this process with those for $e^{\pm}$ pair annihilation, plasmon decay, and photo-neutrino emission over a wide range of temperature and density. We also compare our updated energy loss rates for the above thermal neutrino emission processes with the fitting formulas widely used in stellar evolution models and determine the temperature and density domain in which each process dominates. We discuss the implications of our results for detection of $\bar{\nu}_e$ from massive stars during their pre-supernova evolution and find that pair annihilation makes the predominant contribution to the signal from the thermal emission processes.