A Mass Matrix for Atmospheric, Solar, and LSND Neutrino Oscillations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a four-neutrino mass matrix model that simultaneously explains atmospheric, solar, and LSND neutrino oscillation data, incorporating active and sterile neutrinos with specific mixing patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mass matrix structure for four neutrinos that unifies all three experimental observations with a symmetry-based derivation.

Findings

Describes maximal mixing for atmospheric neutrinos within the upper doublet.

Explains solar neutrino oscillations as maximal mixing within the lower doublet.

Models LSND as a weak transition between the two doublets.

Abstract

We construct a mass matrix for the four neutrino flavors, three active and one sterile, needed to fit oscillations in all three neutrino experiments: atmospheric, solar, and LSND, simultaneously. It organizes the neutrinos into two doublets whose central values are about 1 eV apart, and whose splittings are of the order of 10^(-3) eV. Atmospheric neutrino oscillations are described as maximal mixing within the upper doublet, and solar as the same within the lower doublet. Then LSND is a weak transition from one doublet to the other. We comment on the Majorana versus Dirac nature of the active neutrinos and show that our mass matrix can be derived from an S_2 x S_2 permutation symmetry plus an equal splitting rule.