We show that the nonzero electron mass plays a critical role in determining the magnetic properties of neutron stars by suppressing the generation of the chiral charge density needed to trigger a strong chiral plasma instability during the core collapse of supernovae. This instability has been proposed as a plausible mechanism for generating extremely large helical magnetic fields in neutron stars at their birth; the mechanism relies on the generation of a large nonequilibrium chiral charge density via electron capture reactions that selectively deplete left-handed electrons during core collapse and the early evolution of the protoneutron star. Our calculation shows that the electron chirality violation rate induced by Rutherford scattering, despite being suppressed by the smallness of the electron mass relative to the electron chemical potential, is still fast compared to the weak interaction electron capture rate. The resulting asymmetry between right- and left-handed electron densities is therefore unlikely to attain an astrophysically relevant magnitude.

• Received 1 October 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.085035