Neutrino Oscillations Induced by Gravitational Recoil Effects

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum gravitational effects, modeled by virtual D branes, could cause neutrino oscillations through tiny violations of Lorentz invariance, with oscillation lengths depending on energy and a topological mass scale.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism linking quantum gravitational fluctuations to neutrino oscillations, highlighting a similar energy dependence as in loop quantum gravity.

Findings

Neutrino oscillation length is proportional to M/E^2.

Quantum gravitational fluctuations can induce neutrino oscillations.

The energy dependence matches predictions from loop quantum gravity.

Abstract

Quantum gravitational fluctuations of the space-time background, described by virtual D branes, may induce neutrino oscillations if a tiny violation of the Lorentz invariance (or a violation of the equivalence principle) is imposed. In this framework, the oscillation length of massless neutrinos turns out to be proportional to M/E^2, where E is the neutrino energy and M is the mass scale characterizing the topological fluctuations in the vacuum. Such a functional dependence on the energy is the same obtained in the framework of loop quantum gravity.