Astrophysical Effects of nu+gamma-->nu+gamma+gamma and Its Crossed Processes

Abstract

Recently, Dicus and Repko computed nu gamma --> nu gamma gamma for energies below the threshold for e^{+}e^{-} pair production. They found across section on the order of 10^{-52} omega ^{gamma} with gamma =10, where omega is the CMS energy of one of the initial particles in MeV. Cross sections for the crossed processes are the same to factors of order one. This note investigates the extent to which these processes could, if their result extrapolates past 1 MeV: affect supernova dynamics; cut off the energy distribution of very high energy cosmic photons and neutrinos; and possibly give rise to an observable gamma signal from scattering of neutrinos from one supernova by those of a second supernova close in space and time. We also estimate, from Supernova 1987A, that, in the region above a few MeV, gamma must fall below 8.4.