Testing the Principle of Equivalence by Solar Neutrinos

Abstract

We discuss the possibility of testing the principle of equivalence with solar neutrinos. If there exists a violation of the equivalence principle quarks and leptons with different flavors may not universally couple with gravity. The method we discuss employs a quantum mechanical phenomenon of neutrino oscillation to probe into the non-universality of the gravitational couplings of neutrinos. We develop an appropriate formalism to deal with neutrino propagation under the weak gravitational fields of the sun in the presence of the flavor mixing. We point out that solar neutrino observation by the next generation water Cherenkov detectors can improve the existing bound on violation of the equivalence principle by 3-4 orders of magnitude if the nonadiabatic Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein mechanism is the solution to the solar neutrino problem.

Latex, 17 pages + 6 uuencoded postscript figures, KEK-TH-396, TMUP-HEL-9402 (unnecessary one reference was removed)

References in corpus (2)

• Neutrino Mixing due to a Violation of the Equivalence Principle
• A test of the equivalence principle by long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiments

Cited by in corpus (34)

• Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations and New Physics
• Physics Reach of High-Energy and High-Statistics IceCube Atmospheric Neutrino Data
• Comments on Neutrino Tests of Special Relativity
• Testing violations of special and general relativity through the energy dependence of nu_mu<--->nu_tau oscillations in the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino experiment
• L/E-Flatness of the Electron-Like Event Ratio in Super-Kamiokande and a Degeneracy in Neutrino Masses
• A Possible Violation of the Equivalence Principle by Neutrinos
• Solar neutrino results and Violation of the Equivalence Principle: An analysis of the existing data and predictions for SNO
• Neutrino oscillations in the Sun probe long-range leptonic forces
• Solar Neutrinos and the Principle of Equivalence
• Determination of the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy via the Phase of the Disappearance Oscillation Probability with a Monochromatic \barν_e Source
• High Energy Cosmic Neutrinos and the Equivalence Principle
• Probing Nonstandard Neutrino Physics by Two Identical Detectors with Different Baselines
• Three Flavour Gravitationally Induced Neutrino Oscillations and the Solar Neutrino Problem
• Gravitational ultrarelativistic spin-orbit interaction and the weak equivalence principle
• The Solar Neutrino Problem and Gravitationally Induced Long-wavelength Neutrino Oscillation
• Constraining the Violation of Equivalence Principle with IceCube Atmospheric Neutrino Data
• An Investigation of Equivalence Principle Violations Using Solar Neutrino Oscillations in a Constant Gravitational Potential
• Neutrino Oscillations from String Theory
• Solar Neutrinos and the Violation of Equivalence Principle
• VEP oscillation solutions to the solar neutrino problem
• Neutrino Oscillations Induced by Gravitational Recoil Effects
• Testing the principle of equivalence by supernova neutrinos
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis as a Test of the Friedmann Equation in the Early Universe
• IceCube constraints on Violation of Equivalence Principle
• Violation of the Equivalence Principle in the light of the SNO and SK solar neutrino results
• Neutrino Helicity and Chirality Transitions in Schwarzschild Space-Time
• Neutrino Tests of General and Special Relativity
• Effects of the Violation of the Equivalence Principle at DUNE
• Probing New Limits for the Violation of the Equivalence Principle in the solar-reactor neutrino sector as a next to leading order effect
• Probing the violation of equivalence principle at a muon storage ring via neutrino oscillation
• Neutrino Spin Transitions and the Violation of the Equivalence Principle
• Violation of Equivalence Principle in Neutrino Sector: Probing the Extended Parameter Space
• CPT invariance and neutrino physics
• Sensitivity of KM3NeT to Violation of Equivalence Principle