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 $\nu_L$ into $\nu_R$. 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 $\nu_R$, our results can be used to place an upper limit on the neutrino magnetic moment $\mu_\nu < (0.1-0.4)\times 10^{-11}\mu_B$