Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Neutrino flavour states and the quantum theory of neutrino oscillations

REVIEW ARTICLE

Carlo Giunti

Show affiliations


TOPICAL REVIEW

The definition and derivation of flavour neutrino states in the framework of standard quantum field theory is reviewed, clarifying some subtle points. It is shown that a flavour neutrino state that describes a neutrino produced or detected in a charged-current weak interaction process depends on the process under consideration and is appropriate for the description of neutrino oscillations as well as for the calculation of neutrino production or detection rates. Hence, we have a consistent framework for the description of neutrino oscillations and interactions in neutrino oscillation experiments. The standard flavour neutrino states are obtained as approximations which describe neutrinos in experiments that are not sensitive to the dependence of neutrino interactions on the neutrino mass differences. It is also shown that the oscillation probability can be derived either through the usual light-ray time = distance approximation or through an average of the spacetime-dependent oscillation probability over the unobserved propagation time.


PACS

14.60.Lm Ordinary neutrinos (nue, numu, nutau)

11.10.-z Field theory

12.15.-y Electroweak interactions

13.15.+g Neutrino interactions

Subjects

Particle physics and field theory

Dates

Issue 2 (February 2007)

Received 8 August 2006

Published 9 January 2007



  1. Neutrino flavour states and the quantum theory of neutrino oscillations

    Carlo Giunti 2007 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 34 R93

  2. Nonlinear integral-equation formulation of orthogonal polynomials

    Carl M Bender and E Ben-Naim 2007 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 F9

  3. Exact helical reconstruction using native cone-beam geometries

    Frédéric Noo et al 2003 Phys. Med. Biol. 48 3787

  4. Atom tracking for reproducible force spectroscopy at room temperature with non-contact atomic force microscopy

    Masayuki Abe et al 2005 Nanotechnology 16 3029

  5. A micro-machined retro-reflector for improving light yield in ultra-high-resolution gamma cameras

    Jan W T Heemskerk et al 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 3003

  6. Fast free-form deformable registration via calculus of variations

    Weiguo Lu et al 2004 Phys. Med. Biol. 49 3067

  7. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate studies in whole human blood

    W T Hung et al 1994 Phys. Med. Biol. 39 1855

  8. Lateral manipulation of single atoms at semiconductor surfaces using atomic force microscopy

    Noriaki Oyabu et al 2005 Nanotechnology 16 S112

  9. Prediction of respiratory tumour motion for real-time image-guided radiotherapy

    Gregory C Sharp et al 2004 Phys. Med. Biol. 49 425

  10. A public domain PC based treatment planning system

    H P Lawrence 1990 Phys. Med. Biol. 35 787

Related review articles

What's this?
View review articles related to this research to gain an insight into the key trends in this subject area. Related review articles are selected based on PACS/MSC codes, and are no more than three years old.

  1. Study of neutrino oscillations in long-baseline accelerator experiments
  2. Physics at a future Neutrino Factory and super-beam facility

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.