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J. Martin Laming (NRL)
Supernovae emit far more energy as neutrinos (1053 - 1054 erg) than as electromagnetic radiation (~ 1051 erg). A recent paper (Bingham et al 1994) speculated that the intense flux of neutrinos generated during a supernova explosion may interact collisionlessly with the surrounding plasma providing an extra heat source through the excitation of plasma waves. This result was criticised on various grounds by Hardy & Melrose (1997). I will present a discussion of these works and suggest that under certain conditions, neutrino induced waves may possibly be generated with growth rates large enough to be interesting during the few second duration of a supernova neutrino burst. The essential requirements are that the plasma electrons be degenerate (in order to avoid the collisional wave damping that would otherwise result) and that a magnetic field of at least ~1015 G exist. This magnetic field is similar to those recently inferred from observations of magnetars (Kouveliotou et al. 1998, Vasisht & Gotthelf 1997), and so can be considered as within the realm of plausibility.
\begin{thebibliography}{} \bibitem{}Bingham, R., Dawson, J. M., Su, J. J., & Bethe, H. A. 1994, Phys. Lett. A, 193, 279 \bibitem{}Hardy, S. J., & Melrose, D. B. 1997, ApJ, 480, 705 \bibitem{}Kouveliotou, C., et al. 1998, Nature, 393, 235 \bibitem{}Vasisht, G., & Gotthelf, E. V. 1997, ApJ, 486, L129 \end{thebibliography}
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