Solar Neutrinos and the Decaying Neutrino Hypothesis

TL;DR

This paper investigates the possibility that neutrino mass eigenstates are unstable by analyzing solar neutrino data, providing bounds on neutrino lifetimes and discussing implications for the massive neutrino hypothesis.

Contribution

It offers a mostly model-independent bound on neutrino lifetimes by combining various solar neutrino data, exploring the impact of neutrino decay on the data's compatibility with massive neutrinos.

Findings

Bound on neutrino lifetimes derived from solar neutrino data

Neutrino decay could potentially improve data compatibility with massive neutrinos

Analysis suggests neutrino instability is a plausible hypothesis

Abstract

We explore, mostly using data from solar neutrino experiments, the hypothesis that the neutrino mass eigenstates are unstable. We find that, by combining $^8$B solar neutrino data with those on $^7$Be and lower-energy solar neutrinos, one obtains a mostly model-independent bound on both the $\nu_1$ and $\nu_2$ lifetimes. We comment on whether a nonzero neutrino decay width can improve the compatibility of the solar neutrino data with the massive neutrino hypothesis.