Main content start

The neutrino force at all length scales

Speaker
Bingrong Yu
Date
Fri April 11th 2025, 3:00 - 5:00pm
Affiliation
Cornell University
Event Sponsor
Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics
Location
Varian 312

The exchange of a pair of neutrinos can mediate a long-range force. This "neutrino force" is a unique quantum force predicted by the Standard Model; it is also sensitive to the nature of the neutrino mass. Yet, this force is too weak to be detected so far. In this talk, I will introduce our recent progress in detecting the neutrino force from two aspects. (1) At the microscopic scale, since the neutrino interaction breaks the parity symmetry, we propose to use the atomic parity violation (APV) to probe the neutrino force. We derive a new formula for the neutrino force that is valid at all distances and apply it to study APV effects in different atomic systems. We find that the neutrino force effect is significant compared with the current sensitivity of APV experiments. It also has an important effect on the atomic measurement of the Weinberg angle. (2) At the macroscopic scale, the neutrino force can be coherently enhanced by a neutrino background. We calculate the finite-temperature correction to the neutrino force in the background of cosmic neutrinos and solar/reactor neutrino flux. We find the background correction can significantly change the scaling behavior of the neutrino force at long distances, increasing the chance to detect this force. Finally, if I have time, I will briefly discuss the BSM extension, that is, using our strategy to probe the quantum force from other exotic light particles (e.g., axion).