Can Gravity Distinguish Between Dirac and Majorana Neutrinos?

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that spin-gravity interactions in a Lense-Thirring background can differentiate between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos by affecting their oscillation lengths, providing a potential observational test.

Contribution

It introduces a method using gravitational phase and perturbation theory to distinguish neutrino types based on their spin-gravity coupling effects.

Findings

Majorana and Dirac neutrinos exhibit significantly different matrix elements.

Gravitational corrections notably alter neutrino oscillation lengths.

Application to SN1987A illustrates practical implications.

Abstract

We show that spin-gravity interaction can distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrino wave packets propagating in a Lense-Thirring background. Using time-independent perturbation theory and gravitational phase to generate a perturbation Hamiltonian with spin-gravity coupling, we show that the associated matrix element for the Majorana neutrino differs significantly from its Dirac counterpart. This difference can be demonstrated through significant gravitational corrections to the neutrino oscillation length for a two-flavour system, as shown explicitly for SN1987A.