Oscillating Flavors in Massless Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper proposes a quaternion-based model of massless neutrinos that exhibits flavor oscillations, spin, and helicity properties, challenging the traditional notion that mass is necessary for neutrino oscillations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quaternionic formulation of Dirac's equation that allows massless neutrinos to oscillate among flavors, expanding theoretical understanding.

Findings

Massless neutrinos can oscillate among flavors in the quaternionic model

Solutions exhibit spin 1/2 and helicity depending on energy sign

Model provides a new perspective on neutrino properties without mass

Abstract

By considering Dirac's equation using quaternions ($\mathbb{H}$) with their greater degree of freedom in imaginaries, it is shown that a model can be created with oscillations among flavors even if the particles, are massless. Furthermore the solutions are spin $\frac{1}{2}$ and have helicities depending on whether their energy is positive or negative.