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Constraints on millicharged particles from thunderstorms on the Solar system planets

Ekaterina Dmitrieva, Petr Satunin

Abstract

We investigate the production of millicharged particles (mCPs) by the Schwinger mechanism in thunderstorms in the atmospheres of different planets in the Solar system. We study both fermion and scalar mCPs; for scalar mCPs, we take into account the effect of Bose enhancement. We use the observational data of planetary atmospheres obtained by satellite missions to establish constraints on the charge and mass of mCP particles. The best constraints came from the observation of thunderstorms in Saturn's atmosphere: $q > 10^{-11}$ for fermionic mCP and $q > 10^{-24}$ for bosonic mCPs. These constraints are, to the best of our knowledge, the best in the literature.

Constraints on millicharged particles from thunderstorms on the Solar system planets

Abstract

We investigate the production of millicharged particles (mCPs) by the Schwinger mechanism in thunderstorms in the atmospheres of different planets in the Solar system. We study both fermion and scalar mCPs; for scalar mCPs, we take into account the effect of Bose enhancement. We use the observational data of planetary atmospheres obtained by satellite missions to establish constraints on the charge and mass of mCP particles. The best constraints came from the observation of thunderstorms in Saturn's atmosphere: for fermionic mCP and for bosonic mCPs. These constraints are, to the best of our knowledge, the best in the literature.
Paper Structure (7 sections, 21 equations, 4 figures)

This paper contains 7 sections, 21 equations, 4 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Schwinger production of millicharged particles in a thundersorm
  3. Bose enhancement effect for scalar millicharged particles
  4. Constraints on mCP parameters from observational data
  5. Conclusion
  6. Funding
  7. Acknowledgements

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Two cloud thunderstorm. Discharge of thunderclouds due to mCP production (left) or lightning (right).
  • Figure 2: The layered structure of charged thunderclouds (left) and potential well for produced mCPs (right). Negatively charged mCP from the Schwinger pair remain in the potential well.
  • Figure 3: The constraints on the charge $q$ of bosonic mCP from the thunderstorms in the atmospheres of Solar system planets, in case of Bose enhancement.
  • Figure 4: The constraints on the charge $q$ of fermion mCP from the thunderstorms in the atmospheres of Solar system planets, in case of without Bose enhancement and several experiments constraints SN1987A from SN1987A Chang:2018rsoDavidson:2000hfDavidson:1993sj, BBN is constraints from Big-bang nucleosynthesis Davidson:1993sjDavidson:2000hf, Earth(Bose) is constraints from Earth thunderstorms with Bose-enhancement (see Fig.\ref{['fig_TS']}), RG is red giant and WD is white dwarf Davidson:2000hf, SZ is CMB observations of the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect Burrage:2009yz.