Spin-flavor oscillations of Dirac neutrinos described by relativistic quantum mechanics

TL;DR

This paper develops a relativistic quantum mechanics approach to describe spin-flavor oscillations of Dirac neutrinos in matter and magnetic fields, revealing new resonances and applying findings to supernova environments.

Contribution

It derives an exact wave equation solution and an effective Hamiltonian for neutrino oscillations, including corrections that introduce new resonance phenomena.

Findings

Identifies a new resonance in neutrino oscillations due to corrections in the Hamiltonian.

Analyzes the impact of magnetic fields, matter polarization, and non-standard effects on neutrino transitions.

Applies the model to supernova environments, studying transitions involving sterile neutrinos.

Abstract

Spin-flavor oscillations of Dirac neutrinos in matter and a magnetic field are studied using the method of relativistic quantum mechanics. Using the exact solution of the wave equation for a massive neutrino, taking into account external fields, the effective Hamiltonian governing neutrino spin-flavor oscillations is derived. Then the The consistency of our approach with the commonly used quantum mechanical method is demonstrated. The obtained correction to the usual effective Hamiltonian results in the appearance of the new resonance in neutrino oscillations. Applications to spin-flavor neutrino oscillations in an expanding envelope of a supernova are discussed. In particular, transitions between right-polarized electron neutrinos and additional sterile neutrinos are studied for realistic background matter and magnetic field distributions. The influence of other factors such as the longitudinal magnetic field, the matter polarization, and the non-standard contributions to the neutrino effective potential, is also analyzed.