Comment on "Gravitationally Induced Neutrino-Oscillation Phases"

TL;DR

This paper critically evaluates a recent claim of a new gravitationally induced neutrino oscillation phase, demonstrating that the effect is negligible and not of the proposed form, using Schwarzschild coordinates.

Contribution

It clarifies the nature and magnitude of gravitational effects on neutrino oscillations, refuting the existence of a significant new effect claimed in prior work.

Findings

The gravitational effect on neutrino oscillations is present but very small.

The claimed new effect of gravitationally induced phases is not supported by straightforward calculations.

The effect is too weak to be experimentally measured.

Abstract

We critically examine the recent claim (gr-qc/9603008) of a ``new effect'' of gravitationally induced quantum mechanical phases in neutrino oscillations. A straightforward exercise in the Schwarzschild coordinates appropriate to a spherically symmetric non-rotating star shows that, although there is a general relativistic effect of the star's gravity on neutrino oscillations, it is not of the form claimed, and is too small to be measured.