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Neutrino Decoherence in Simple Open Quantum Systems
by Bin Xu
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Bin Xu |
| Submission information | |
|---|---|
| Preprint Link: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.13471v2 (pdf) |
| Date submitted: | 2021-07-15 19:28 |
| Submitted by: | Xu, Bin |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics Core |
| Ontological classification | |
|---|---|
| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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| Approaches: | Theoretical, Phenomenological |
Abstract
Neutrinos lose coherence as they propagate, which leads to the fading away of oscillations. In this work, we model neutrino decoherence induced in open quantum systems from their interaction with the environment. We first present two different models in the quantum mechanical framework, in which the environment is modeled as forced harmonic oscillators with white noise interactions, or two-level systems with stochastic phase kicks. We then look at the decoherence process in the quantum field theoretic framework induced by elastic scatterings with environmental particles. The exponential decay is obtained as a common feature for all models, which shows the universality of the decoherence processes. We discuss connections to the GKSL master equation approach and give a clear physical meaning of the Lindblad operators. We demonstrate that the universality of exponential decay of coherence is based on the Born-Markov approximation. The models in this work are suitable to be extended to describe real physical processes that could be non-Markovian.
Current status:
Reports on this Submission
Strengths
The manuscript systematically studies the effects of interaction of certain forms with medium on the coherence of a relativistic quantum system.
Weaknesses
Although the study may be of interest from an academic point of view but the assumptions made on the interaction form do not hold valid for neutrino interaction with medium. Neutrino interaction with matter fields are either neutral current or charged current, neither of which satisfies the condition in Eq. (5) of the manuscript.
A neutral current interaction of mass (energy) eigenstate $\nu_i$ on the electron converts it into $\nu_e$ which is a coherent linear combination of all three mass eigenstates.
On the other hand, a charged current interaction converts it into a charged lepton. This effect is especially important for ultra high energy cosmic neutrinos with energies higher than $10^{18}$ eV traversing the Earth which have been studied in the literature.
Report
The manuscript in this present form is misleading because it misrepresents neutrino interaction form.
Requested changes
Realistic interaction form between neutrino and matter fields, as given by the standard electroweak interaction formalism, has to be considered.
In addition to the references listed in the manuscript, the papers with the following eprint numbers also study the problem of decoherence which should be added:
0803.0495; hep-ph/9802387; 2104.05806; 2005.03022; 1201.4128
2105.03272