arXiv · 1708.02248
Solar neutrino flux at keV energies
Abstract
We calculate the solar neutrino and antineutrino flux in the keV energy range. The dominant thermal source processes are photoproduction ($\gamma e\to e \nu\bar\nu$), bremsstrahlung ($e+Ze\to Ze+e+\nu\bar\nu$), plasmon decay ($\gamma\to\nu\bar\nu$), and $\nu\bar\nu$ emission in free-bound and bound-bound transitions of partially ionized elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. These latter processes dominate in the energy range of a few keV and thus carry information about the solar metallicity. To calculate their rate we use libraries of monochromatic photon radiative opacities in analogy to a previous calculation of solar axion emission. Our overall flux spectrum and many details differ significantly from previous works. While this low-energy flux is not measurable with present-day technology, it could become a significant background for future direct searches for keV-mass sterile neutrino dark matter.
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Edoardo Vitagliano, Javier Redondo, Georg Raffelt. 2017-08-07. Solar neutrino flux at keV energies. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2017%2F12%2F010
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