# Yaroslavl State UniversityPreprint YARU-HE-99/01hep-ph/9903210 Comment on the paper: “Neutrino pair production by a virtual photon in an external magnetic field” by Zhukovskii et al.

## Abstract

We point out some serious mistakes in the investigation of Zhukovskii et al. Both the amplitude and the probability of the process were calculated wrongly, that is, the problem of the neutrino pair production by a virtual photon in an external magnetic field is still unsolved.

In the recent paper  an attempt was made of investigation of the virtual photon decay into the neutrino pair in an external magnetic field with a strength much smaller than the critical value, in the frame of the standard model with neutrino mixing. However, the results of the calculations were incorrect. The basic formula (1) for the process amplitude was written in a rather slipshod manner, namely, the summation over the lepton flavor $`(a=e,\mu ,\tau )`$ was defined inadequately, besides the quark contribution into a part of the aplitude, which is diagonal with respect to a neutrino type (proportional to $`\delta _{ij}`$), was not taken into account. It is also seen from Eq.(1) that the authors extended incorrectly their result  for the crossed process $`\nu _i\nu _j\gamma (ij)`$, where the charged current contribution was presented only <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1In our opinion, Eq.(4) of the paper  for the matrix element contains an extra factor 2 which is repeated in the commented formula (1)., on a case $`i=j`$, where the $`Z`$ exchange contribution was also presented. Really, the Eq.(1) demonstrates manifestly that the authors have “discovered” a new type of the effective local Lagrangian of the neutrino interaction with charged leptons of a chiral type (when only left-handed charged leptons interact). However, as was known up to now , the Lagrangian of such an interaction had a form

$`_{\nu e}^{(Z)}={\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}}[\overline{\nu }\gamma ^\alpha (1\gamma _5)\nu ][\overline{e}\gamma _\alpha (g_V^{\nu e}g_A^{\nu e}\gamma _5)e],`$ (1)   
where

$$g_V^{\nu e}=\frac{1}{2}+2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W,g_A^{\nu e}=\frac{1}{2}.$$

By this means both left-handed and right-handed charged leptons take part in the interaction $`(g_V^{\nu e}g_A^{\nu e})`$.

Our next remark is concerned with a procedure of calculations with using of the effective local Lagrangian of weak interactions. The matter is, that taking of the local limit leads to an appearance of the two problems: an amplitude acquires the ultraviolet divergency in this limit, and the triangle axial-vector anomaly as well. It is most easily seen if an amplitude is expanded into a series in terms of the external magnetic field as it is shown in Fig. 1, where the dashed lines designate the external field.

The zero term in this expansion

$`^{(0)}=(B=0),`$ (2)   
contains the ultraviolet divergency, while the term, linear on the external field

$`^{(1)}=B{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dB}}|_{B=0}`$ (3)   
contains the triangle anomaly because of the presence of the axial-vector coupling in the effective weak Lagrangian. To obtain a correct expression for the amplitude one should perform a procedure of the two-step subtraction

$`_{corr}=\left(^{(0)}^{(1)}\right)+\stackrel{~}{}^{(0)}+\stackrel{~}{}^{(1)},`$ (4)   
where the correct zero-field term $`\stackrel{~}{}^{(0)}`$ and the term $`\stackrel{~}{}^{(1)}`$ linear on the field should be found independently without taking the local limit and with taking account of the neutrino interaction via $`W`$ and $`Z`$ bosons with all charged fermions, both leptons and quarks. For example, the expression for $`\stackrel{~}{}^{(1)}`$ can be obtained from the amplitude of the Compton-like process $`\nu +\gamma ^{}\nu +\gamma ^{}`$  where the field tensor of one photon is replaced by the external field tensor. The subtraction procedure of this kind is performed in our paper . Since the authors of the commented paper do not take the triangle anomaly problem into account, their result would be incorrect even if the proper Lagrangian of the lepton-neutrino interaction was used.

Finally, the statement of the authors  about the applicability of their Eqs.(3), (4) for an analysis of a real photon decay into the neutrino pair is radically incorrect. It could be seen from the kinematical arguments. Really, these formulas were written for a photon with the space-like momentum, while the total momentum of a neutrino pair is always the time-like one. In such a case this process is kinematically forbidden not only in vacuum but in the constant external magnetic field as well.

To summarize: In our opinion, the problem of the neutrino pair production by a virtual photon in an external magnetic field is still unsolved.