The Neutrinos of the Neighboring Brane

TL;DR

This paper proposes a spacetime-structure-based model involving two coexisting branes to explain neutrino oscillations, predicting sterile neutrino transitions and fitting experimental data with specific mass relations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel brane-world model linking neutrino oscillations to spacetime structure, incorporating both Majorana and Dirac couplings across branes.

Findings

Predicts sterile neutrino transition due to brane coupling

Explains solar and atmospheric neutrino data with specific mass ratios

Aligns with tri-bimaximal mixing angles

Abstract

The phenomenon of neutrino oscillations is studied usually as a mixing between the flavor neutrinos and the neutrinos having a definite mass. The mixing angles and the mass eigenvalues are treated independently in order to accommodate the experimental data. We suggest that neutrino oscillations are connected to the structure of spacetime. We expand on a recently proposed model, where two "mirror" branes coexist. One brane hosts left-handed particles (our brane), while the other brane hosts right-handed particles. Majorana-type couplings mixes neutrinos in an individual brane, while Dirac-type couplings mixes neutrinos across the brares. We first focus our attention in a single brane. The mass matrix, determined by the Majorana mass, leads to mass eigenstates and further to mixing angles identical to the mixing angles proposed by the tri-bimaximal mixing. When we include the Dirac-type coupling, connecting the two branes, we obtain a definite prediction for the transition to a sterile neutrino (right-handed neutrino). With m_L (m_R) the Majorana mass for the left (right) brane, we are able to explain the solar and the atmospheric neutrino data with m_L = 2m_R and m_R = 10**(-2) eV.