Constraints on quantum spacetime-induced decoherence from neutrino oscillations

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum spacetime might cause decoherence in neutrino oscillations, developing a formalism to quantify effects and using experimental data to set stringent constraints on the energy scale of such quantum gravitational phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a Lindblad-type formalism for neutrino decoherence due to quantum spacetime and derives experimental bounds on the associated energy scale from neutrino oscillation data.

Findings

Constraints on quantum spacetime decoherence energy scale: $E_{QG}\geq 2.6 imes 10^{34}$ GeV (reactor)

Constraints from atmospheric neutrinos: $E_{QG}\geq 2.5 imes 10^{55}$ GeV

Developed a general formalism for neutrino decoherence effects

Abstract

We investigate the implications of decoherence induced by quantum spacetime properties on neutrino oscillation phenomena. We develop a general formalism where the evolution of neutrinos is governed by a Lindblad-type equation and we compute the oscillation damping factor for various models that have been proposed in the literature. Furthermore, we discuss the sensitivity to these effects of different types of neutrino oscillation experiments, encompassing astrophysical, atmospheric, solar, and reactor neutrino experiments. By using neutrino oscillation data from long-baseline reactors and atmospheric neutrino observations, we establish stringent constraints on the energy scale governing the strength of the decoherence induced by stochastic metric fluctuations, amounting to, respectively, $E_{QG}\geq 2.6 \cdot 10^{34}\; \text{GeV}$ and $E_{QG}\geq 2.5\cdot 10^{55}\;\text{GeV}$.