English

Neutrino Velocity and Neutrino Oscillations

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2013-05-30 v4

Abstract

We study distances of propagation and the group velocities of the muon neutrinos in the presence of mixing and oscillations assuming that Lorentz invariance holds. Oscillations lead to distortion of the νμ\nu_\mu wave packet which, in turn, changes the group velocity and the distance νμ\nu_\mu travels. We find that the change of the distance, doscd_{osc}, is proportional to the length of the wave packet, σx\sigma_x, and the oscillation phase, ϕp\phi_p, acquired by neutrinos in the π\pi- and KK- meson decay tunnel where neutrino wave packet is formed: doscσϕpd_{osc} \propto \sigma \phi_p. Although the distance doscd_{osc} may effectively correspond to the superluminal motion, the effect is too tiny (105\sim 10^{- 5} cm) to be reconciled with the OPERA result. We analyze various possibilities to increase doscd_{osc} and discuss experimental setups in which doscd_{osc} (corresponding to the superluminal motion) can reach an observable value 1\sim 1 m.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1202.0953,
  title  = {Neutrino Velocity and Neutrino Oscillations},
  author = {H. Minakata and A. Yu. Smirnov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.0953},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

LaTeX, 24 pages, 1 eps figure, matches to the published version