Publication Abstracts

Chin et al. 1966

Chin, C.-W., H.-Y. Chiu, and R. Stothers, 1966: Astrophysical evidence for the direct electron-neutrino weak interaction. Ann. Phys., 39, 280-299, doi:10.1016/0003-4916(66)90061-3.

Observational evidence exists that the central stars of planetary nebulae are evolving into white dwarfs. However, a "gap" in the stellar population appears between the faintest central stars (100L) and the brightest white dwarfs (1L). Theoretical models of superluminous white dwarfs (Gap stars) are constructed with and without the inclusion of neutrino emission processes. It is known from previous work that neutrino emission speeds up the evolution of a star. The particular process of importance here is the plasma neutrino process of Adams, Ruderman, and Woo, which depends critically on the existence of the (eνε)(eνε) interaction. We have found that the evolution of stars in the mass range 0.7 M to 1.1M (Chandrasekhar mass limit for white DWARFS = 1.4M) is accelerated by a factor of 10 to 100, depending on the assumed chemical composition, if plasma neutrino emission is included; below 0.4 M, neutrino emission is unimportant. The more massive Gap stars may be identified observationally on the basis of their very blue color. An upper limit to their evolution time is then obtained from a variety of observational arguments; this upper limit is 5×105 years, to be compared with the theoretical lifetimes of 2×105 years with neutrino emission and 2×106 years without it. From these results we can draw the following conclusions: (1) the presently known rate of plasma neutrino energy loss roughly reproduces the astronomical data; (2) the weak interaction coupling constant for the (eνε)(eνε) interaction has a lower limit close to the currently accepted value. Further evidence from the known observational lifetime of central stars and from some crude stellar models indicates that neutrino emission (photoneutrino process) may also be accelerating evolution in the central stars.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{ch08600k,
  author={Chin, C.-W. and Chiu, H.-Y. and Stothers, R.},
  title={Astrophysical evidence for the direct electron-neutrino weak interaction},
  year={1966},
  journal={Annals of Physics},
  volume={39},
  pages={280--299},
  doi={10.1016/0003-4916(66)90061-3},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - ch08600k
AU  - Chin, C.-W.
AU  - Chiu, H.-Y.
AU  - Stothers, R.
PY  - 1966
TI  - Astrophysical evidence for the direct electron-neutrino weak interaction
JA  - Ann. Phys.
JO  - Annals of Physics
VL  - 39
SP  - 280
EP  - 299
DO  - 10.1016/0003-4916(66)90061-3
ER  -

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