Neutrino capture on tritium as a probe of flavor vacuum condensate and dark matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes that neutrino capture on tritium, especially for non-relativistic neutrinos, can differentiate neutrino models, reveal quantum field theory effects, and test if flavor vacuum energy contributes to dark matter, with implications for experiments like PTOLEMY.

Contribution

It introduces a method to use neutrino capture rates to identify neutrino models, detect flavor vacuum condensate effects, and explore dark matter contributions from neutrino mixing.

Findings

Capture rate varies with neutrino models.

Flavor vacuum condensate leaves an imprint on detection.

Potential link between neutrino mixing and dark matter.

Abstract

We show that the study of neutrino capture on tritium, for non-relativistic neutrinos, can allow to distinguish among the various neutrino models, eventually prove the quantum field theory condensation effects and permit to test the hypothesis according to which the flavor vacuum energy gives a contribution to the dark matter of the universe. Indeed, we show that the capture rate depends on the neutrino model considered, and that it brings an imprint of the flavor vacuum condensate. Experiments like PTOLEMY, designed to reveal the cosmic neutrino background, then can give an indication of the existence of the dark matter component induced by neutrino mixing.