Theories of weak interactions and astrophysical evidence

Abstract

It has been proposed in an earlier paper that photons can interact weakly with neutrinos. Assuming this photon-neutrino coupling, the effect of energy loss due to the pair-annihilation process and the photoneutrino process on the evolutionary time scales of a 15.6M⊙ star has been discussed. In the typical model of Hayashi, Hoshi and Sugimoto (HHS), the lifetimes for carbon burning and later phases have been calculated assuming the photon-neutrino coupling, and is compared with the results obtained by HHS according to the (eν)(eν) coupling. In case of the\(\gamma \nu \bar \nu \) coupling, the ratio of the number of blue supergiants (He-burning stars) to red supergiants (stars in C-burning and later stages) is found to be ≲ 10 with the initial concentration of carbonXc=0.5, whereas according to the (eν)(eν) coupling, the corresponding ratio is found to be nearly 33. According to astrophysical observations, this ratio is found to be nearly unity within a factor 1.5. It is noted that the result according to the\(\gamma \nu \bar \nu \) coupling becomes significantly better in comparison with the (eν)(eν) coupling. Also, in view of the uncertatinties regarding the total luminosity in the red-supergiant phase as well as the rate of C+C relation, we can consider the result obtained according to the\(\gamma \nu \bar \nu \) coupling to be in reasonable proximity to the «observed» value. From this, we argue that stars seem to «favour» the photon-neutrino coupling theory rather than the current-current coupling theory of weak interactions.