The GSI Time Anomaly: Facts and Fiction

TL;DR

The paper refutes the claim that the GSI time anomaly results from neutrino mixing, instead proposing it may be caused by quantum beats between two coherent energy levels of the decaying ion.

Contribution

It clarifies the correct calculation method for interaction rates and proposes a novel explanation involving quantum beats for the GSI anomaly.

Findings

Neutrino mixing does not explain the GSI anomaly.

Quantum beats from two coherent energy levels could cause the anomaly.

Standard calculation methods remain valid due to causality.

Abstract

The claims that the GSI time anomaly is due to the mixing of neutrinos in the final state of the observed electron-capture processes are refuted. With the help of an analogy with a double-slit experiment, it is shown that the standard method of calculation of the rate of an interaction process by adding the rates of production of all the allowed final states, regardless of a possible coherence among them, is correct. It is a consequence of causality. It is shown that the GSI time anomaly may be caused by quantum beats due to the existence of two coherent energy levels of the decaying ion with an extremely small energy splitting (about $6\times10^{-16} \text{eV}$) and relative probabilities having a ratio of about 1/99.