Can Gravity Distinguish Between Dirac and Majorana Neutrinos?
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2009-11-11 v3 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We show that spin-gravity interaction can distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrino wave packets propagating in a Lense-Thirring background. Using time-independent perturbation theory and gravitational phase to generate a perturbation Hamiltonian with spin-gravity coupling, we show that the associated matrix element for the Majorana neutrino differs significantly from its Dirac counterpart. This difference can be demonstrated through significant gravitational corrections to the neutrino oscillation length for a two-flavour system, as shown explicitly for SN1987A.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/0605153,
title = {Can Gravity Distinguish Between Dirac and Majorana Neutrinos?},
author = {Dinesh Singh and Nader Mobed and Giorgio Papini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/0605153},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures; minor changes of text; typo corrected; accepted in Physical Review Letters