Bound on the neutrino magnetic moment from chirality flip in supernovae

Abstract

For neutrinos with a magnetic moment, we show that the collisions in a hot and dense plasma act as an efficient mechanism for the conversion of $ν_L$ into $ν_R$. The production rate for right-handed neutrinos is computed in terms of a resummed photon propagator which consistently incorporates the background effects. Assuming that the entire energy in a supernova collapse is not carried away by the $ν_R$, our results can be used to place an upper limit on the neutrino magnetic moment $μ_ν< (0.1-0.4)\times 10^{-11}μ_B$