We reconsider the problem of the birefringence of electromagnetic (EM) waves in a medium consisting of a plasma and a νν̅-gas within the Standard Model of particle physics. The considered effect arises in such a medium due to the parity violation for the electroweak neutrino-electron interaction. Our recent calculations of the electroweak correction to the photon polarization operator in the electroweak plasma allow us to significantly improve some previous estimates of such effect in astrophysics. We estimate the rotary power for EM waves propagating in a non-relativistic plasma in the intergalactic space and interacting with the gas of relic neutrinos and antineutrinos there. We show that, in presence of a plasma, the EM wave birefringence effect in a νν̅-gas exceeds significantly that effect in a νν̅-gas in empty space considered earlier. These previous treatments of the birefringence relied on the calculations of the refraction index for on-shell photons in vacuum using the forward scattering amplitude γν→γν with virtual charged leptons in Feynman diagrams. The possibility to observe experimentally the new effect suggested here is discussed.

我们在粒子物理标准模型中重新考虑了由等离子体和 νν̅ 气体组成的介质中电磁 (EM) 波的双折射问题。由于电弱中微子 - 电子相互作用的宇称违反，所考虑的效果出现在这种介质中。我们最近对电弱等离子体中光子极化算子的电弱校正的计算使我们能够显着改善之前对天​​体物理学中这种效应的一些估计。我们估计了 EM 波在星际空间的非相对论等离子体中传播并与那里的中微子和反中微子气体相互作用的旋转功率。我们表明，在存在等离子体的情况下，νν̅-气体中的 EM 波双折射效应明显超过前面考虑的空白空间中的 νν̅-气体中的效应。这些先前的双折射处理依赖于使用费曼图中虚拟带电轻子的前向散射幅度 γν→γν 计算真空中壳上光子的折射率。讨论了通过实验观察这里提出的新效果的可能性。