Parametric excitation of neutrino pairs by electron plasma waves

The collective coupling of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos in a dense plasma is considered. Such a coupling is provided by the existence of electron plasma waves. These waves can parametrically excite neutrino–anti-neutrino pairs, and the parametric decay rate is established. This stimulated process for neutrino pair production can eventually become dominant over the single particle decay rates characteristic of the usual Urca process and provide an alternative mechanism for the neutrino cooling of collapsing neutron stars.