Neutrino-driven electrostatic instabilities in a magnetized plasma

Abstract

The destabilizing role of neutrino beams on the Trivelpiece-Gould modes is considered, assuming electrostatic perturbations in a magnetized plasma composed by electrons in a neutralizing ionic background, coupled to a neutrino species by means of an effective neutrino force arising from the electroweak interaction. The magnetic field is found to significantly improve the linear instability growth rate, as calculated for supernova type II environments. On the formal level, for wave vectors parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field, the instability growth rate is found from the unmagnetized case replacing the plasma frequency by the appropriated Trivelpiece-Gould frequency. The growth rate associated with oblique propagation is also obtained.