2001/02/27 by S. M. Bilenky, S. M. BILENKY, C. Giunti +1 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Neutrino Physics Research #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ex #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0217751x01004967
published as Int.J.Mod.Phys. A16 (2001) 3931-3949 · 20 pages
arxiv created 2001/02/27 · openalex publication_date 2001/09/30 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this short review we discuss the notion of lepton numbers. The strong evidence in favor of neutrino oscillations obtained recently in the super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino experiment and in solar neutrino experiments imply that the law of conservation of family lepton numbers L e , L μ and L τ is strongly violated. We consider the states of flavor neutrinos ν e , ν μ and ν τ and we discuss the evolution of these states in space and time in the case of nonconservation of family lepton numbers due to the mixing of light neutrinos. We discuss and compare different flavor neutrino discovery experiments. We stress that experiments on the search for ν μ →ν τ and ν e →ν τ oscillations demonstrated that the flavor neutrino ν τ is a new type of neutrino, different from ν e and ν μ . In the case of neutrino mixing, the lepton number (only one) is connected with the nature of massive neutrinos. Such a conserved lepton number exists if massive neutrinos are Dirac particles. We review possibilities to check in future experiments whether the conserved lepton number exists.