Speaker
Description
Neutron stars typically contain a percent-level population of muons and therefore act as macroscopic sources of the long-range U(1){μ-τ} gauge field linked to a possible muonic fifth force. In the proto-neutron-star phase, muon antineutrinos produced via charged-current weak processes escape the star, leaving behind a net L{μ-τ} charge that builds up a “dark Coulomb” potential. Once the resulting quasi-static electric field becomes strong enough, Schwinger production of neutrino-antineutrino pairs is triggered, gradually neutralizing the charge. By solving the coupled Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff, Poisson, and transport equations, we show that this dynamical screening can significantly reduce the potential depth relative to the no-neutralization case for strong couplings. Nevertheless, the residual field remains strong enough to power a persistent, flavor-specific neutrino afterglow. Such a flux may be within reach of current 10 MeV-neutrino observations, providing a novel probe of a muonic fifth force.