Coherence of neutrino flavor mixing in quantum field theory

Abstract

In the simplistic quantum mechanical picture of flavor mixing, conditions on the maximum size and minimum coherence time of the source and detector regions for the observation of interference---as well as the very viability of the approach---can only be argued in an ad hoc way from principles external to the formalism itself. To examine these conditions in a more fundamental way, the quantum field theoretical $S$-matrix approach is employed in this paper, without the unrealistic assumption of microscopic stationarity. The fully normalized, time-dependent neutrino flavor mixing event rates presented here automatically reveal the coherence conditions in a natural, self-contained, and physically unambiguous way, while quantitatively describing the transition to their failure.

12 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (6)

• When the Wavepacket is Unnecessary
• The field-theoretical approach to coherence in neutrino oscillations
• When do neutrinos cease to oscillate?
• The MSW Effect in Quantum Field Theory
• Neutrino oscillations in space within a solvable model
• Space-time description of neutrino flavour oscillations

Cited by in corpus (42)

• Oscillations of neutrinos and mesons in quantum field theory
• Paradoxes of neutrino oscillations
• Quantum Field Theory of three flavor neutrino mixing and oscillations with CP violation
• Neutrino Wave Packets in Quantum Field Theory
• Towards a unique formula for neutrino oscillations in vacuum
• Coherence and Wave Packets in Neutrino Oscillations
• Damping signatures in future neutrino oscillation experiments
• A diagrammatic treatment of neutrino oscillations
• Liouville equations for neutrino distribution matrices
• Decoherence and oscillations of supernova neutrinos
• Oscillations of Mossbauer neutrinos
• Neutrino oscillations from relativistic flavor currents
• Fermion mixing in quasi-free states
• Tomography of the Earth's Core Using Supernova Neutrinos
• Decays of supernova neutrinos
• Neutrino flavor oscillations without flavor states
• Neutrino Flavor States and the Quantum Theory of Neutrino Oscillations
• Quantum flavor oscillations extended to the Dirac theory
• First quantized approaches to neutrino oscillations and second quantization
• Probing nonstandard lepton number violating interactions in neutrino oscillations
• Beyond the MSW effect: Neutrinos in a dense medium
• Searching for New Physics in Future Neutrino Factory Experiments
• Neutrino Flavor States and the Quantum Theory of Neutrino Oscillations
• Decoherence effects in reactor and Gallium neutrino oscillation experiments -- a QFT approach
• Neutrino Oscillations, Entanglement and Coherence: A Quantum Field Theory Study In Real Time
• Space-time propagation of neutrino wave packets at high temperature and density
• Extended Grimus-Stockinger theorem and inverse square law violation in quantum field theory
• Wave packet treatment of neutrino flavor oscillations in various spacetimes
• Do non-relativistic neutrinos oscillate?
• Theory of Neutrino Oscillations
• Neutrino production states in oscillation phenomena - are they pure or mixed?
• Covariant asymmetric wave packet for a field-theoretical description of neutrino oscillations
• Relativistic quantum theories and neutrino oscillations
• Inference solves a boundary-value collision problem, with relevance to neutrino flavor transformation
• Virtual neutrino propagation at short baselines
• Majorana neutrino oscillations in vacuum
• Massless Neutrino Oscillations via Quantum Tunneling
• Unitarity triangle test of the extra factor of two in particle oscillation phases
• Neutrino oscillations in a trapping potential
• Decoherence in Neutrino Oscillation between 3D Gaussian Wave Packets
• Evolution of Mixed Particles Interacting with Classical Sources
• Gravitational effects on neutrino decoherence in Lense-Thirring metric