Quantum decoherence effect and neutrino oscillation

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum decoherence caused by environmental interactions affects neutrino oscillations, providing a microscopic model that modifies survival probability formulas and explains oscillations without mass differences.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum decoherence model based on the Hepp-Coleman framework, extending understanding of neutrino oscillations within ordinary quantum mechanics.

Findings

Neutrino oscillations can occur without mass differences due to decoherence effects.

The model predicts modified survival probabilities with two additional parameters.

Oscillations persist even in environments where neutrinos are massless.

Abstract

In the view of the quantum dynamic theory of measurement developed from the Hepp-Colemen (HC) model (K. Hepp, Hev.Phys.Acta, {\bf 45}, 237 (1972)), the quantum decoherence in neutrino flavor oscillation caused by an environment surrounding neutrinos is generally considered in this paper. The Ellis, Hagelin, Nanopoulos and Srednicki (EHNS) mechanism for solving the solar neutrino problem can be comprehended in a framework of the ordinary quantum mechanics. In the weak- coupling limit, a microscopic model is proposed to describe the transition of two neutrino system from a pure state to a mixed state. It gives the modified formula of survival probability of neutrino oscillation with two additional time-dependent parameters. For specified environments, this result shows that the oscillating phenomena of neutrino still exist even without a mass difference in free neutrino.