Superluminal neutrino, flavor, and relativity

TL;DR

This paper explores models with flavor-dependent deformed Lorentz transformations that can accommodate superluminal neutrino velocities while obeying relativity, predicting new effects in the muon sector if OPERA's results are confirmed.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework allowing superluminal neutrinos with flavor-dependent Lorentz transformations and predicts related effects in charged leptons and sterile neutrinos.

Findings

Superluminal muon-neutrino velocity can be matched with muon velocity at the same energy.

Predicted new TeV-scale effects in the muon sector if superluminal neutrinos are confirmed.

A separate model with superluminal sterile neutrinos in 4D spacetime is discussed.

Abstract

Modified neutrino dispersion relations, which still obey the relativity principle, can have both a superluminal (muon-type) neutrino and a luminal (electron-type) neutrino, as long as neutrino-mass effects can be neglected. The idea is to allow for flavor-dependent deformed Lorentz transformations and an appropriate hierarchy of energy scales. If OPERA's result on a superluminal velocity of the muon-neutrino is confirmed, the model has a matching superluminal velocity of the corresponding charged lepton, the muon, at equal particle energy. Assuming that this model is not already ruled out, new TeV-scale effects in the muon sector are predicted. Also discussed is a different model with a superluminal sterile neutrino propagating in the usual 4 spacetime dimensions.