Quantum Field Theory of Particle Oscillations: Neutron-Antineutron Conversion

Abstract

We formulate the quantum field theory description of neutron-antineutron oscillations in the framework of canonical quantization, in analogy with the Bardeen--Cooper--Schrieffer (BCS) theory and the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. The physical vacuum of the theory is a condensate of pairs of {\it would-be neutrons and antineutrons} in the absence of the baryon-number violating interaction. The quantization procedure defines uniquely the mixing of massive Bogoliubov quasiparticle states which represent the neutron. In spite of not being mass eigenstates, neutron and antineutron states are defined on the physical vacuum and the oscillation formulated in asymptotic states. The exchange of baryonic number with the vacuum condensate engenders what may be observed as neutron-antineutron oscillation. The convergence between the present canonical approach and the Lagrangian/path integral approach to neutron oscillations is shown by the calculation of the anomalous (baryon-number violating) propagators. The quantization procedure proposed here can be extended to neutrino oscillations and, in general, to any particle oscillations.

38 pages, clarifications and references added. Version published in Phys. Rev. D 98, 015019 (2018)

References in corpus (8)

• Neutron -- Mirror Neutron Oscillation: How Fast Might It Be?
• On the role of the rotations and Bogoliubov transformations in neutrino mixing
• Parity-doublet representation of Majorana fermions and neutron oscillation
• Majorana Neutrino as Bogoliubov Quasiparticle
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• Comment on the Comment on the paper "Can oscillating neutrino states be formulated universally?''
• Neutrino Oscillations by a Manifestly Coherent Mechanism and Massless vs. Massive Neutrinos
• Unitarily Inequivalent Vacua and Long-Range Forces: Phenomenology with Scalar Boson Mass-Shift
• Seesaw, coherence and neutrino oscillations