Oscillations and evolution of a hot and dense gas of flavor neutrinos: a quantum field theory study

Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

28 pages, 3 eps figs. version accepted in PRD

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.69.125012

We study the time evolution of the distribution functions for hot and or degenerate gases of two flavors of Dirac neutrinos as a result of flavor mixing and dephasing. This is achieved by obtaining the time evolution of the flavor density matrix directly from quantum field theory at finite temperature and density. The time evolution features a rich hierarchy of scales which are widely separated in the nearly degenerate or relativistic cases and originate in interference phenomena between particle and antiparticle states. In the degenerate case the flavor asymmetry $\Delta N(t)$ relaxes to the asymptotic limit $\Delta N(\infty)=\Delta N(0)\cos^2(2\theta)$ via dephasing resulting from the oscillations between flavor modes that are not Pauli blocked, with a power law $1/t$ for $t>t_s \approx 2 k_F/\Delta M^2$. $k_F$ is the largest of the Fermi momenta. The distribution function for flavor neutrinos and antineutrinos as well as off-diagonal densities are obtained. Flavor particle-antiparticle pairs are produced by mixing and oscillations with typical momentum $k\sim \bar{M}$ the average mass of the neutrinos. An effective field theory description emerges on long time scales in which the Heisenberg operators obey a Bloch-type equation of motion valid in the relativistic and nearly degenerate cases. We find the non-equilibrium propagators and correlation functions in this effective theory and discuss its regime of validity as well as the potential corrections.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Oscillations and evolution of a hot and dense gas of flavor neutrinos: a quantum field theory study does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Oscillations and evolution of a hot and dense gas of flavor neutrinos: a quantum field theory study, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Oscillations and evolution of a hot and dense gas of flavor neutrinos: a quantum field theory study will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-336335

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.