Comment on ''Cerenkov radiation by neutrinos in a supernova core"

Abstract

The helicity changing Cerenkov radiation in a supernova core was used earlier to put a restrictive bound on the neutrino magnetic moment. Subsequently it was pointed out, that this result was based on a numerical error in the calculationn of the refractive index of the SN core and using the correct numbers it was shown that the photons in a SN core do not have a space-like dispersion relation, so the Cerenkov process would not occur. Here we show that the earlier estimate of refractive index was based on the thermodynamic formula for susceptibility which is inapplicable for real photons or plasmons. However in an ultrarelativistic plasma the plasmon has a space-like branch in the dispersion relation hence the Cerenkov radiation of a plasmon is kinematically allowed. We show that the observations of neutrino flux from SN1987A put a constraint on the neutrino magnetic moment $μ_ν < 0.6\times 10^{-11}μ_B$.