PONDEROMOTIVE FORCE DUE TO NEUTRINOS

We derive the ponderomotive force for an arbitrary distribution of neu trinos in a plasma using quantum statistical field theory. The pondero motive force has two components. One component, due to gradients in th e neutrino and plasma densities, reduces to a known expression. The se cond component is due to a coupling between anisotropies in the neutri no and plasma densities. Simple estimates suggest that the ponderomoti ve force is too small to play an important role in the acceleration me chanism for plasma in type II supernovae.