Chirality Dynamics for a fermionic particle non-minimally coupling with an external magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper constructs Dirac wave packets to analyze chiral oscillations of a fermionic particle, like a neutrino, non-minimally coupled to an external magnetic field, clarifying the physical distinction between chirality and helicity.

Contribution

It introduces a method to quantify chiral oscillations for a Dirac fermion in an external magnetic field using wave packets and solves the interacting Dirac equation for this scenario.

Findings

Wave packet approach clarifies chiral oscillation behavior.

External magnetic field influences fermionic chirality dynamics.

Method applicable to neutrino physics and magnetic interactions.

Abstract

We proceed with the construction of normalizable Dirac wave packets for treating chiral oscillations in the presence of an external magnetic field. Both chirality and helicity quantum numbers correspond to variables of fundamental importance in the study of chiral interactions, in particular, in the context of neutrino physics. In order to clarify a subtle aspect in the confront of such concepts which, for massive particles, represent different physical quantities, we are specifically interested in quantifying chiral oscillations for a {\em fermionic} Dirac-{\em type} particle (neutrino) non-minimally coupling with an external magnetic field {\boldmath$B$} by solving the correspondent interacting Hamiltonian (Dirac) equation. The viability of the intermediate wave packet treatment becomes clear when we assume {\boldmath$B$} orthogonal/parallel to the direction of the propagating particle.