Neutrino Shortcuts in Spacetime

TL;DR

This paper explores how sterile neutrinos in theories with large extra dimensions can cause unconventional oscillation patterns and apparent superluminal speeds, offering experimental tests via long baseline neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of neutrino shortcuts in curved extra-dimensional spacetime and links superluminal neutrino observations to the geometry of extra dimensions.

Findings

Resonance phenomena reveal the size of extra dimensions.

Sterile neutrinos can take shortcuts, causing superluminal effects.

Proposes experimental tests with CERN to NESTOR beam.

Abstract

Theories with large extra dimensions may be tested using sterile neutrinos living in the bulk. A bulk neutrino can mix with a flavor neutrino localized in the brane leading to unconventional patterns of neutrino oscillations. A resonance phenomenon, strong mixing between the flavor and the sterile neutrino, allows to determine the radius of the large extra dimension. If our brane is curved, then the sterile neutrino can take a shortcut through the bulk, leading to an apparent superluminal neutrino speed. The amount of "superluminality" is directly connected to parameters determining the shape of the brane. On the experimental side, we suggest that a long baseline neutrino beam from CERN to NESTOR neutrino telescope will help to clarify these important issues.