Effects of gravitational lensing on neutrino oscillation in Hu-Sawicki f(R) gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational lensing in Hu-Sawicki f(R) gravity affects neutrino oscillations, proposing that lensed neutrino signals could help test modified gravity theories and determine neutrino properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of neutrino oscillation phases and probabilities in Hu-Sawicki f(R) gravity, including weak and strong gravitational lensing effects, which is a novel approach.

Findings

Oscillation probabilities depend on the Hu-Sawicki parameter λ.

Lensing effects vary with neutrino mass hierarchy and lightest neutrino mass.

Strong-field lensing amplifies the influence on neutrino oscillations.

Abstract

Gravitational lensing serves as a powerful probe of compact astrophysical objects and dark matter distributions. As relativistic counterparts to photons, neutrinos experiencing lensing offer a complementary means to investigate the properties of curved spacetimes. This paper studies neutrino oscillations within the spacetime geometry described by the Hu-Sawicki f(R) gravity model, focusing on the modifications induced by gravitational lensing. We calculate the oscillation phases for both radial and non-radial neutrino propagation and derive the corresponding flavor transition probabilities for 2-flavor and 3-flavor scenarios under the weak-field approximation. Our analysis demonstrates that the lensing-affected oscillation probabilities exhibit a clear dependence on the Hu-Sawicki model parameter $\lambda$ , the neutrino mass hierarchy, and the absolute value of the lightest neutrino mass. Furthermore, extending the analysis beyond the weak-field regime reveals that strong-field gravitational lensing amplifies these effects. These results suggest that measurements of lensed neutrino signals could provide a novel avenue for testing modified gravity models and constraining fundamental neutrino parameters.