We derive the force exerted on the background plasma by an arbitrary distribution of noninteracting quasiparticles, corresponding to either collective excitations of the plasma (plasmons and phonons) or dressed particles (photons and neutrinos). Our approach is based on the effective Hamiltonian describing the quasiclassical dynamics of the individual particles in the presence of a background medium. We recover the usual results for the relativistic ponderomotive force of a photon gas and a plasmon gas and we derive the force, due to weak interactions, exerted by the electron neutrinos in a background medium containing electrons, positrons, and neutrons with arbitrary distribution functions. Generalization to other background species and other neutrino flavors is also discussed.

• Received 12 August 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.59.2273