Flavor oscillations from a spatially localized source: A simple general treatment

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.55.2760· OSTI ID:467526

Grossman, Y ^[1]; Lipkin, H J ^[1]

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1. Department of Particle Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 (Israel)

A unique description avoiding confusion is presented for all flavor oscillation experiments in which particles of a definite flavor are emitted from a localized source. The probability for finding a particle with the wrong flavor must vanish at the position of the source for all times. This condition requires flavor-time and flavor-energy factorizations which determine uniquely the flavor mixture observed at a detector in the oscillation region, i.e., where the overlaps between the wave packets for different mass eigenstates are almost complete. Oscillation periods calculated for {open_quotes}gedanken{close_quotes} time-measurement experiments are shown to give the correct measured oscillation wavelength in space when multiplied by the group velocity. Examples of neutrino propagation in a weak field and in a gravitational field are given. In these cases the relative phase is modified differently for measurements in space and time. Energy-momentum (frequency-wave number) and space-time descriptions are complementary, equally valid, and give the same results. The two identical phase shifts obtained describe the same physics; adding them together to get a factor of 2 is double counting. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 467526
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 55; ISSN 0556-2821; ISSN PRVDAQ
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
EIGENSTATES
FACTORIZATION
FLAVOR MODEL
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
PHASE SPACE
SPACE-TIME
WAVELENGTHS