Synchronization versus decoherence of neutrino oscillations at intermediate densities

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.82.125004· OSTI ID:21503744

Raffelt, Georg G ^[1]; Tamborra, Irene ^[2]

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut), Foehringer Ring 6, 80805 Muenchen (Germany)
2. Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica 'Michelangelo Merlin', Via Amendola 173, 70126 Bari (Italy)

We study collective oscillations of a two-flavor neutrino system with arbitrary but fixed density. In the vacuum limit, modes with different energies quickly dephase (kinematical decoherence), whereas in the limit of infinite density they lock to each other (synchronization). For intermediate densities, we find different classes of solutions. There is always a phase transition in the sense of partial synchronization occurring only above a density threshold. For small mixing angles, partial or complete decoherence can be induced by a parametric resonance, introducing a new time scale to the problem, the final outcome depending on the spectrum and mixing angle. We derive an analytic relation that allows us to calculate the late-time degree of coherence based on the spectrum alone.

• OSTI ID: 21503744
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 82, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.125004; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
DENSITY
FLAVOR MODEL
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
NEUTRINOS
OSCILLATIONS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RESONANCE
SIMULATION
SPECTRA
SYNCHRONIZATION
WEINBERG ANGLE
COMPOSITE MODELS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTICLE MODELS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUARK MODEL