According to new calculations, the interaction between neutrinos and photons can occur as follows: very strong magnetic fields. For example, these can be found in the plasma surrounding stars. This fact may lead us to solve the mystery that scientists have been grappling with for more than a decade and are constantly proposing more and more new hypotheses: Why is the top of the Sun hotter than its surface?

How do neutrinos interact with photons?

Neutrinos are called one of the most common particles in the universe. They only give rise to photons. Scientists believe that these cosmic “ghosts”, having almost no mass, ignore the surrounding world, but still cannot be ignored by us.

Neutrinos are important for studying astrophysical events, understanding why the universe is the way it is, and advancing our knowledge of particle physics. Finding out whether and how neutrinos interact with certain aspects of the universe reveals information not only about these particles themselves, but also about interactions with other elements and the quantum universe.

The work of physicists Kenzo Ishikawa of Hokkaido University and Yutaka Tobita of Hokkaido University is theoretical. It uses mathematical analysis to determine the conditions under which neutrinos can interact with electromagnetic quantum photons. And they found this strongly magnetized plasma (a gas that becomes positively or negatively charged due to the removal or addition of electrons) corresponds exactly to such conditions.

Under normal “classical” conditions neutrinos do not interact with photons. However, we have discovered how neutrinos and photons can interact in uniform magnetic fields on extremely large scales (up to 10).³ kilometers — in the substance known as plasma that forms around stars,
– says Ishikawa.

Therefore, scientists investigated the possibility that a theoretical phenomenon known as the electroweak Hall effect might contribute to the neutrino interaction in the solar atmosphere. This means that under extreme conditions the two fundamental forces of the universe, electromagnetism and the weak interaction, appear to merge into a single force; this is called electroweak theory.

Based on electroweak theory, researchers discovered that neutrinos can interact with photons. If the star’s atmosphere can provide a suitable environment for the electroweak Hall effect, then these interactions can also occur there.

In their work, Ishikawa and Tobita also calculate the energy states of the photon-neutrino system during such an interaction. In the future, scientists will investigate how neutrinos and photons exchange energy in extreme conditions.