Pulsar Kicks Induced by Spin Flavor Oscillations of Neutrinos in Gravitational Fields

Abstract

The origin of pulsar kicks is reviewed in the framework of the spin-flip conversion of neutrinos propagating in the gravitational field of a magnetized protoneutron star. We find that for a mass in rotation with angular velocity ${\bbox \omega}$, the spin connections entering in the Dirac equation give rise to the coupling term ${\bbox \omega}\cdot {\bf p}$, being ${\bf p}$ the neutrino momentum. Such a coupling can be responsible of pulsar kicks owing to the neutrino emission asymmetry generated by the relative orientation of ${\bf p}$ with respect to ${\bbox \omega}$. For our estimations, the large non standard neutrino magnetic momentum, $\mu_\nu \lesssim 10^{-11}\mu_B$, is considered.