Neutrino-photon scattering and its crossed processes in a background magnetic field

Abstract

We study the neutrino-photon processes such as gamma gamma --> <v(v)over bar>, v gamma --> v gamma, and <v(v)over bar> --> gamma gamma in a background magnetic field smaller than the critical magnetic field Bc + m(e)(2)/e. Using Schwinger's formalism, we extract leading magnetic-field contributions to the above processes. Our result is valid throughout the kinematic regime where both neutrino and photon energies are significantly smaller than m(w). We briefly discuss the astrophysical implications of our result. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.