Neutrino oscillation with minimal length uncertainty relation via wave packet approach

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP), implying a minimal length, affects neutrino oscillation probabilities when neutrinos are modeled as wave packets, potentially providing bounds on quantum gravity effects.

Contribution

It derives a perturbative modification to neutrino oscillation probabilities incorporating GUP effects using a wave packet approach, linking minimal length to observable neutrino phenomena.

Findings

GUP modifies neutrino oscillation probabilities depending on wave packet width.

An upper bound on the GUP deformation parameter is estimated to be around 5×10^{25}.

Stronger bounds are achievable with smaller neutrino wave packet widths.

Abstract

Theories of Quantum Gravity as well as string theory suggest the existence of a minimal measurable length and the related Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP). The universality of Quantum Gravity implies that the GUP influences every quantum mechanical process. Neutrino oscillation as a quantum phenomenon exhibits quantumness at macroscopic distances and could provide potentially a suitable room for quantum foundation explorations. In this paper, we perturbatively derive the neutrino oscillation probability based on the GUP and by treating neutrinos as wave packets. We see that the GUP modifications are dependent on the effective position width of the transition amplitude $\sigma_x$ such that with the smaller $\sigma_x$ we can obtain a stronger bound on the minimal length scale in comparison to what is expected from standard model interactions. More explicitly, one can obtain an upper bound about $5\times 10^{25}$ for the deformation parameter, $\beta_0$, with accelerator neutrino experiments such as MINOS, provided that $\sigma_x\sim 10^{-15}\text{m}$ which is reasonable since the energy of these neutrinos is of the order of a few GeV.