Pubs.GISS: Abstract of Canuto and Chou 1971

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Canuto and Chou 1971

Canuto, V., and C.K. Chou, 1971: Neutrino luminosity by the ordinary URCA process in an intense magnetic field. Astrophys. Space Sci., 10, 246-264, doi:10.1007/BF00704085.

The neutrino luminosity by the ordinary URCA process in a strongly magnetized electron gas is computed. General formulae are presented for the URCA energy loss rates for an arbitrary degree of degeneracy. Analytic expressions are derived for a completely degenerate, relativistic electron plasma in the special case of neutron-proton conversion. Numerical results are given for more general cases.

The main results are as follows: the URCA energy loss rates are drastically reduced for the regime of great degeneracy by a factor up to 10^-3 for Θ ≃ 1, and T₉ ≲ 10, where Θ = H/H_q, H_q = m²c³/eℏ = 4.414×10¹³ G. In the non-degenerate regime the neutrino luminosity is enhanced approximately linearly with Θ for the temperature range 1 <~ T₉ ≲ 10. Possible applications to white dwarfs and neutron stars are briefly discussed.