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  • Open Access

Neutrino-induced polarization rotation in active galactic nuclei plasmas

H. B. Câmara1,2,*, A. Smetana2,†, and A. A. Tursunov3,‡

  • *Contact author: henrique.camara@cvut.cz
  • †Contact author: adam.smetana@cvut.cz
  • ‡Contact author: arman.tursunov@physics.slu.cz

Phys. Rev. D 113, 113003 – Published 8 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1wts-fq7w

Abstract

We study parity-violating birefringence induced by an asymmetric neutrino background in plasmas associated with active galactic nuclei (AGN). We derive a directionality factor arising from the relative bulk motion between the neutrino medium and plasma, and show that it can produce an anomalous frequency dependence of the polarization-rotation angle, distinct from the ω−2 scaling of Faraday rotation. This anomalous scaling can occur either at the resonance plasma frequency condition ω≃ωp, or when Eν0≃mνω/ωp lies within the range of the neutrino energy spectrum. We estimate the effect for three scenarios: jets propagating through the cosmic neutrino background (CνB), jets with an internal flux of high-energy neutrinos, and accretion-disk plasma permeated by the CνB. Of the three scenarios, the latter gives the largest rotation angle ϕd∼10−35  rad, at x-ray frequencies. Although the predicted rotation angles are below current polarimetric sensitivity, the identified spectral signatures provide a theoretical framework for probing neutrino asymmetries and AGN plasma properties independent of magnetic field models.

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