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Could neutrinos eventually decay? Or are they indefinitely stable?

I was having a discussion with someone here in stack exchange and they came up with the following arguments for the possibility that neutrinos (and other fundamental particles like electrons) may ...
vengaq's user avatar
  • 2,878
5 votes
1 answer
472 views

Bound states between neutrinos using Schrödinger's equation?

I would like to see if it's possible that neutrinos (with sufficiently slow velocities) could form bound states in a universe with matter (such as ours) There is a cosmic neutrino background in the ...
vengaq's user avatar
  • 2,878
0 votes
0 answers
99 views

Can we determine the polarization of a neutrino?

I recently read that neutrinos have a polarization property---their polarization is opposite to antineutrinos. Is it possible to determine the polarization of a neutrino? For example, we can determine ...
Andrew Baker's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
89 views

Flavor Oscillations, the case of leptons

In the neutrino sector neutral particle oscillation occurs which gives rise to neutrino oscillation. From my currrent understanding , the observation of the neutrino oscillation occurred because the ...
Stefano Barone's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
64 views

Mass difference of $B^0$, $\overline{B^0}$-states

It is known that $B^0$, $\overline{B^0}$ or $K^0$, $\overline{K^0}$ particles have different masses and that they oscillate in 'an equivalent' way to neutrino oscillations. Is it theoretically ...
NicAG's user avatar
  • 498
1 vote
2 answers
65 views

Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering Energy Transfer

What is the meaning of coherent elastic in "coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering"? What I understand is when a high energy particle such as neutrino interact with the nucleus as a ...
Sonirtuen's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
36 views

Neutrino Interaction

Massive neutrinos are eigenstates of vacuum Hamiltonian. So any flavour can be expressed as a superposition of these states, and typical considerations of a 2-state system follow. What happens if ...
Snpr_Physics's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
584 views

Photon Phase vs Time Evolution

If it is said that photons do not experience time or distance because they travel at light speed, then how can photons get out of phase with one another due to different path lengths? How can phase ...
RC_23's user avatar
  • 11.2k
0 votes
1 answer
574 views

What is the 'effective number of neutrino species'? And how does that, rather than the total number of them, affect the universe?

As stated above... How can the the physics of early cosmology (articles about which are where I usually come across mentions of such) be affected by an 'effective' number of neutrino types, rather ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
  • 4,709
0 votes
0 answers
37 views

How can neutral elementary particles have spin magnetic moment? [duplicate]

The spin magnetic moment of a particle is proportional to q/2m, where q and m are charge and mass of the particle respectively. So if an elementary particle is neutral (like neutrinos or photons), ...
User3141's user avatar
  • 903
0 votes
0 answers
30 views

What is neutrino pair exchange? Can neutrino pair exchange deduce stronger-than-electromagnetic attractive forces between electrons?

I read recently about neutrino pair exchange. What is neutrino pair exchange? Can this exchange induce forces stronger than electromagnetic forces between electrons which in turn form attractive ...
A.M.M Elsayed 马克's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
179 views

Can neutrinos be entangled in their oscillations?

If two neutrinos are entangled somehow--say, for instance, by being created in the same reaction--would their flavor (Tau, Muon, Electron) be enangled, including in their oscillations between the ...
Sciencemaster's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
96 views

How do weak interactions maintain thermal equilibrium in the early universe?

When reading about why SM neutrinos are not a candidate for DM, it was stated: "Neutrinos are involved in weak interactions that keep them in thermal equilibrium in the early Universe down to the ...
Geop's user avatar
  • 109
2 votes
1 answer
777 views

In neutrino absorption, what is it really that absorbs the neutrino?

I have read a lot of questions on this site about neutrino absorption, and all of them mention that usually when a neutron transforms into a proton or vica versa, that is really an up quark transforms ...
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
-3 votes
3 answers
172 views

How can we experimentally tell that neutrinos are EM neutral?

Neutrinos are elementary particles, to our current knowledge they do have rest mass, but they are the lightest particles (with rest mass). What we observe in neutrino experiments? I do understand ...
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
18 votes
4 answers
6k views

Neutrinos passing through black hole

I have read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino The weak force has a very short range, gravity is extremely weak on the subatomic scale, and neutrinos, as leptons, do not participate in ...
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
149 views

Gravitons passing through matter like neutrinos

I have read these : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino where it says: The weak force has a very short range, gravity is extremely weak on the subatomic ...
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
444 views

Neutrino flavor change in flight

I have read this article: https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/neutrinos/neutrino-types-and-neutrino-oscillations/velocity-differences-of-neutrinos/ https://en....
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
63 views

What are the implications of the discovery of sterile neutrinos?

In this Ars Technica article we read: Now Fermilab is back with its latest update, using two additional years of MiniBooNE data. The excess is still there, and it has edged even closer to the ...
hawkeye's user avatar
  • 871
4 votes
1 answer
555 views

Does a neutrino gas emit blackbody radiation?

My understanding of the microscopic "mechanism" of blackbody radiation* in a gas is as follows: interactions between fluctuating charge distributions in particles of a gas create a microscopic random ...
probably_someone's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
506 views

How are neutrino energy eigenstates different to the momentum eigenstates?

Neutrino flavour eigenstates can be expressed (approximately) in terms of their mass eigenstates, leading to neutrino oscillations. $|\nu_e\rangle = \cos \theta |\nu_1\rangle - \sin \theta |\nu_2\...
Tom E.'s user avatar
  • 28
1 vote
1 answer
173 views

Pauli exclusion, scattering, "neutrino stars"

I've been wondering about how exactly the Pauli exclusion principle works--how it acts like a sort of repulsive "force" which doesn't allow one fermion to "be in the same place" as another. I ...
Dapianoman's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
187 views

Comparison between two flavor neutrino oscillation and a system of up-spin and down-spin states of an electron?

In the system of up-spin and down-spin states of an electron, we can write a general state of electron at time $t$ as $$\left|\psi(t)\right>=a\left|\uparrow\right>+b\left|\downarrow\right>,$$...
user176263's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
335 views

Neutrino oscillations in their rest frame

One thing I've never really had a good feeling for is what neutrino oscillations would look like for a neutrino at rest. Would the neutrino be sitting there with a mass that was uncertain until ...
David Elm's user avatar
  • 1,931
0 votes
1 answer
240 views

Observable Vs Projector in case of Neutrinos

For a spin $s$ system, we can define the observable $A=S_z$, such that $A(t) = S_z(t) = U^\dagger S_z U$, where $U$ is the unitary operator $e^{-iHt}$. We can always define a projector $\Pi_m = |s,m \...
Seeker's user avatar
  • 592
9 votes
1 answer
501 views

Can I stand on a neutrino star?

Hypothetically, if neutrinos lost their energy in the expanding universe, slowed down, and collapsed in a vast and otherwise empty region under their own gravity, they might form a large object ...
safesphere's user avatar
  • 12.9k
0 votes
3 answers
76 views

Could neutrino oscillations be due to exchange of gamma rays?

I was wondering since the relativistic mass-energy of a gamma ray photon is 1.24 MeV/c^2 and the mass of an electron neutrino is < 2.2 eV/c^2 whether the oscillations between the two could, in the ...
Sam Cottle's user avatar
  • 1,562
0 votes
0 answers
185 views

Classical model for neutrino oscillations

Does there exist any classical analogue or model for neutrino oscillations in two as well as three flavor scenarios? I just went through the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Seeker's user avatar
  • 592
3 votes
1 answer
131 views

How do physicists find the speed of neutrinos?

I have heard that there is evidence for neutrinos traveling close to the speed of light, but how is that done? Since neutrinos barely react with anything, and the only evidence for them is indirect (...
user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
1k views

Neutrino interaction probability [closed]

Just a quick question, if a single 1GeV neutrino (muon neutrino) were fired at a block of iron with a given density, $\rho$, and the neutrino-nucleon interaction cross section is $\sigma$, what would ...
DarthPlagueis's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Does the uncertainty principle imply the existence of particles that exceed the speed of light?

The uncertainty principle allows for the creation of virtual particles (with non-zero mass) that exist for very short durations. This allows empty space to have particle pairs that pop into existence ...
Mohammad Al-Turkistany's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
560 views

Time evolution operator acting on a non-eigenket

I'm taking a course in QM at my university, and I'm trying to work out an assignment given to the class by our professor. The setup is as follows: The problem is about a simplified description of ...
Bendik's user avatar
  • 263
16 votes
1 answer
2k views

Do electrons oscillate into muons just like electron-neutrinos into muon-neutrinos?

And if not, why? What is the difference to neutrinos oscillations?
Tim's user avatar
  • 1,892
0 votes
1 answer
230 views

Neutrino mass and the Majorana equation

I can't seem find this on the Internet. What does the Majorana equation predict neutrino masses to be (if they were their own antiparticle), and how? (I have little understanding of spinors, btw...) ...
Damon Blevins's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
513 views

Derivation of neutrino oscillation phase factor

As we know, the neutrino $\nu_{\alpha}$ with flavor $\alpha=e,\mu,\tau$ is a linear combination of mass eigenstates: $$ |\nu_{\alpha}\rangle=\sum_iU_{\alpha i}|\nu_i\rangle,\quad i=1,2,3 $$ where the ...
soliton's user avatar
  • 1,701
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

Unitarity of PMNS matrix

Why should the neutrino mixing matrix (PMNS matrix) be unitary? Is the unitarity dictated by experiments or is it a theoretical demand?
SRS's user avatar
  • 27.2k
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Matrix representation of a triplet state

The $SU(2)$ triplet state is typically given in the fundamental representation as a column vector, e.g. \begin{equation} \vec{\Delta} = \left( \begin{array}{c} \delta^{++} \\ \delta^+ \\ \...
JeffDror's user avatar
  • 9,005
3 votes
1 answer
539 views

Interaction between neutrino and an anti-neutrino?

What happens when a neutrino and an anti-neutrino interacts together? For example, what does a muon neutrino and anti-muon neutrino produce? it says in my book that it creates "muons and antimuons". ...
Vaishnavi's user avatar
  • 1,107
4 votes
1 answer
331 views

How quickly do neutrinos change flavor?

DOE’s Fermilab has switched on its newly upgraded neutrino beam. This is in preparation for the NOvA experiment, which will study neutrinos using a 200-ton particle detector at Fermilab and a 14,000-...
AnimatedPhysics's user avatar