We show that Majoron emission from a hot nascent neutron star can be anisotropic in the presence of a strong magnetic field. If Majorons carry a non-negligible fraction of the supernova energy, the resulting recoil velocity of a neutron star can explain the observed velocities of pulsars.
We discuss an acceleration mechanism for pulsars out of their supernova remnants based on asymmetric neutrino emission from quark matter in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The polarized electron spin fixes the neutrino emission from the dire
ct quark Urca process in one direction along the magnetic field. We calculate the magnetic field strength which is required to polarize the electron spin as well as the required initial proto-neutron star temperature for a successfull acceleration mechanism. In addition we discuss the neutrino mean free paths in quark as well as in neutron matter which turn out to be very small. Consequently, the high neutrino interaction rates will wash out the asymmetry in neutrino emission. As a possible solution to this problem we take into account effects from colour superconductivity.
We discuss a pulsar acceleration mechanism based on asymmetric neutrino emission from the direct quark Urca process in the interior of proto neutron stars. The anisotropy is caused by a strong magnetic field which polarises the spin of the electrons
opposite to the field direction. Due to parity violation the neutrinos and anti-neutrinos leave the star in one direction accelerating the pulsar. We calculate for varying quark chemical potentials the kick velocity in dependence of the quark phase temperature and its radius. Ignoring neutrino quark scattering we find that within a quark phase radius of 10 km and temperatures larger than 5 MeV kick velocities of 1000km s$^{-1}$ can be reached very easily. On the other hand taking into account the small neutrino mean free paths it seems impossible to reach velocities higher than 100km s$^{-1}$ even when including effects from colour superconductivity where the neutrino quark interactions are suppressed.
Observations of radio pulsars have revealed that they have large velocities which may be greater than 1000 km/s. In this work, the efficacy of an active-sterile neutrino transformation mechanism to provide these large pulsar kicks is investigated. A
phase-space based approach is adopted to follow the the transformation of active neutrinos to sterile neutrinos through an MSW-like resonance in the protoneutron star to refine an estimate to the magnitude of the pulsar kick that can be generated in such an event. The result is that this mechanism can create the large pulsar kicks that are observed while not overcooling the star.
Observations of binary pulsars and pulsars in globular clusters suggest that at least some pulsars must receive weak natal kicks at birth. If all pulsars received strong natal kicks above unit[50]{kms}, those born in globular clusters would predomina
ntly escape, while wide binaries would be disrupted. On the other hand, observations of transverse velocities of isolated radio pulsars indicate that only $5pm2%$ have velocities below unit[50]{kms}. We explore this apparent tension with rapid binary population synthesis modelling. We propose a model in which supernovae with characteristically low natal kicks (e.g., electron-capture supernovae) only occur if the progenitor star has been stripped via binary interaction with a companion. We show that this model naturally reproduces the observed pulsar speed distribution and without reducing the predicted merging double neutron star yield. We estimate that the zero-age main sequence mass range for non-interacting progenitors of electron-capture supernovae should be no wider than ${approx}0.2 M_odot$.
The generation of neutrino masses by inverse seesaw mechanisms has advantages over other seesaw models since the potential new physics can be produced at the TeV scale. We propose a model that generates the inverse seesaw mechanism via spontaneous br
eaking of the lepton number, by extending the Standard Model with two scalar singlets and two fermion singlets both charged under lepton number. The model gives rise to a massless Majoron and a massive pseudoscalar which we dub as massive Majoron, which corresponds to the Nambu-Goldstone boson of the breaking of lepton number. If the massive Majoron is stable in cosmological time, it might play the role of a suitable Dark Matter candidate. In this scenario, we examine the model with a massive Majoron in the keV range. In this regime, its decay mode to neutrinos is sensitive to the ratio between the vevs of the new scalars ($omega$), and it vanishes when $ omega simeq sqrt{2/3}$, which is valid within a large region in the parameter space. On the other hand, the cosmological lifetime for the Dark Matter candidate places constraints on its mass via scalar decays. In addition, simple mechanisms that explain the Dark Matter relic abundance within this context and plausible modifications to the proposed setup are briefly discussed.