Langmuir Wave Generation Through A Neutrino Beam Instability

摘要

A standard version of a kinetic instability for the generation of Langmuirwaves by a beam of electrons is adapted to describe the analogous instabilitydue to a beam of neutrinos. The interaction between a Langmuir wave and aneutrino is treated in the one-loop approximation to lowest order in anexpansion in $1/M_W^2$ in the standard electroweak model. It is shown that this kinetic instability is far too weak to occur in asuggested application to the reheating of the plasma behind a stalled shock ina type II supernova (SN). This theory is also used to test the validity of aprevious analysis of a reactive neutrino beam instability and variousshortcomings of this theory are noted. In particular, it is noted thatrelativistic plasma effects have a significant effect on the calculated growthrates, and that any theoretical description of neutrino-plasma interactionsmust be based directly on the electroweak theory. The basic scalings discussedin this paper suggest that a more complete investigation of neutrino-plasmaprocesses should be undertaken to look for an efficient process capable ofdriving the stalled shock of a type II SN.