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Neutrino flavor oscillations without flavor states

Bruno de S. L. Torres1,2,3,*, T. Rick Perche1,2,3,†, André G. S. Landulfo4,‡, and George E. A. Matsas3,§

  • 1Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
  • 3Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidade Estadual Paulista, São Paulo, São Paulo 01140-070, Brazil
  • 4Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Avenida dos Estados, 5001, Santo André, São Paulo 09210-580, Brazil

  • *bdesouzaleaotorres@perimeterinstitute.ca
  • †trickperche@perimeterinstitute.ca
  • ‡andre.landulfo@ufabc.edu.br
  • §george.matsas@unesp.br
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Phys. Rev. D 102, 093003 – Published 18 November, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.093003

Abstract

We analyze the problem of neutrino oscillations via a fermionic particle detector model inspired by the physics of the Fermi theory of weak interactions. The model naturally leads to a description of emission and absorption of neutrinos in terms of localized two-level systems. By explicitly including source and detector as part of the dynamics, the formalism is shown to recover the standard results for neutrino oscillations without mention to “flavor states,” which are ill defined in quantum field theory. This illustrates how particle detector models provide a powerful theoretical tool to approach the measurement issue in quantum field theory and emphasizes that the notion of flavor states, although sometimes useful, must not play any crucial role in neutrino phenomenology.

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  26. Equation (37) is written in the inertial frame which is at rest with the nucleon and, thus, t→τ.

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Phys. Rev. D 102, 093003– Published 18 November, 2020
  • Received 23 September 2020
  • Accepted 26 October 2020
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