The neutrino emission due to plasmon decay and neutrino luminosity of white dwarfs

One of the effective mechanisms of neutrino energy losses in red giants, pre-supernovae and in the cores of white dwarfs is the emission of neutrino-antineutrino pairs in the process of plasmon decay. In this paper, we numerically calculate the emissivity due to plasmon decay in a wide range of temperatures 10⁷-10¹¹ K and densities (2 × 10²-10¹⁴)gcm^-3. Numerical results are approximated by convenient analytical expressions. We also calculate and approximate by analytical expressions the neutrino luminosity of white dwarfs due to plasmon decay, as a function of their mass and internal temperature. This neutrino luminosity depends on the chemical composition of white dwarfs only through the parameter μ_e (the net number of baryons per electron) and is the dominant neutrino luminosity in all white dwarfs at the neutrino cooling stage.