Spatial entanglement and massive neutrino oscillations produced by orbital electron capture decay

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.84.073005· OSTI ID:21607751

Pavlichenkov, I M ^[1]

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1. Russian Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, 123182 (Russian Federation)

The two-particle wave function of neutrino and recoil nucleus is found as a solution of an initial-value problem in the far zone for a time longer than the electron capture decay lifetime of a hydrogenlike ion. The neutrino-recoil entanglement arising in such a process is a consequence of the momentum conservation and is closely related to the wave packet structure of the state. Because of neutrino mixing, the joint wave packet involves the coherent superposition of the neutrino mass eigenstate packets. This is the new physical realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment, which has no analogue in quantum optics and quantum informatics. A class of possible experiments for the registration of a neutrino and a recoil nucleus is proposed. It is shown that, due to spatial correlations, neutrino and recoil oscillations can be observed in the coincidence experiment.

• OSTI ID: 21607751
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 84; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BETA DECAY
CHARGED PARTICLES
CORRELATIONS
DECAY
ELECTRON CAPTURE DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FUNCTIONS
IONS
LEPTONS
LIFETIME
MASS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
MIXING
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEAR DECAY
OSCILLATIONS
PARTICLES
QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT
WAVE FUNCTIONS
WAVE PACKETS