Spin-flavor oscillations of Dirac neutrinos in a plane electromagnetic wave

Maxim Dvornikov

doi:10.1103/physrevd.98.075025

Abstract

We study spin and spin-flavor oscillations of Dirac neutrinos in a plane electromagnetic wave with circular polarization. The evolution of massive neutrinos with nonzero magnetic moments in the field of an electromagnetic wave is based on the exact solution of the Dirac-Pauli equation. We formulate the initial condition problem to describe spin-flavor oscillations in an electromagnetic wave. The transition probabilities for spin and spin-flavor oscillations are obtained. In case of spin-flavor oscillations, we analyze the transition and survival probabilities for different neutrino magnetic moments and various channels of neutrino oscillations. As an application of the obtained results, we study the possibility of existence of $\nu_{e\mathrm{L}}\to\nu_{\mu\mathrm{R}}$ oscillations in an electromagnetic wave emitted by a highly magnetized neutron star. Our results are compared with findings of other authors.

Highlights

The experimental confirmation of oscillations of atmospheric and solar neutrinos in Refs. [1,2] is the direct indication that neutrinos have nonzero masses and mixing, which, in its turn, unambiguously points to the physics beyond the standard model
Despite the great importance of neutrino flavor oscillations for the experimental studies of properties of these particles, other channels of neutrino oscillations are of interest for the evolution of astrophysical and cosmological neutrinos [5]
We study neutrino spin and spinflavor oscillations in a plane electromagnetic wave on the basis of the exact solution of the Dirac-Pauli equation for a massive neutrino in this external electromagnetic field [11]

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The experimental confirmation of oscillations of atmospheric and solar neutrinos in Refs. [1,2] is the direct indication that neutrinos have nonzero masses and mixing, which, in its turn, unambiguously points to the physics beyond the standard model. [1,2] is the direct indication that neutrinos have nonzero masses and mixing, which, in its turn, unambiguously points to the physics beyond the standard model This experimental success was followed by the determination of other parameters in the neutrino mixing matrix, including θ13 We deal mainly with spin-flavor oscillations of neutrinos, which imply the conversion of the type νβL → ναR, where both flavor, α; β 1⁄4 e; μ; τ; ..., and helicity, L; R, change This type of neutrino transition implies that these particles possess nonzero magnetic moments and interact with a strong electromagnetic field. The matrix elements of the neutrino spin interaction are calculated in Appendix

SPIN OSCILLATIONS IN AN ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE

SPIN-FLAVOR OSCILLATIONS

Findings

CONCLUSION