Pulsar kicks induced by spin flavour oscillations of neutrinos in gravitational fields

Abstract

The origin of pulsar kicks is reviewed in the framework of the spin-flip conversion of neutrinos propagating in the gravitational field of a magnetized protoneutron star. We find that for a mass in rotation with angular velocity ω, the spin connections entering in the Dirac equation give rise to the coupling term ω · p, where p is the neutrino momentum. Such a coupling can be responsible for pulsar kicks owing to the neutrino emission asymmetry generated by the relative orientation of p with respect to ω. For our estimations, the large non-standard neutrino magnetic momentum, μv ≲ 10-11 μB, is considered. © 2005 RAS.