2014/12/31 by B. J. P. Jones · 37 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Cosmic neutrino background #Measurements of neutrino speed #Muon #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino detector #Neutrino oscillation #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Pion #Quantum #Quantum decoherence #Quantum mechanics #Solar neutrino #hep-ex #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.91.053002
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 91(5) (American Physical Society) · 13 pages, 10 figures. v2: Minor typographical corrections v3: Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.D
arxiv created 2015/02/05 · openalex publication_date 2015/03/04 · arxiv updated 2015/03/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
In this paper we consider the coherence properties of neutrinos produced by the decays of pions in conventional neutrino beams. Using a multiparticle density matrix formalism we derive the oscillation probability for neutrinos emitted by a decaying pion in an arbitrary quantum state. Then, using methods from decoherence theory, we calculate the pion state which evolves through interaction with decay-pipe gases in a typical accelerator neutrino experiment. These two ingredients are used to obtain the distance scales for neutrino beam coherence loss. We find that for the known neutrino mass splittings, no nonstandard oscillation effects are expected on terrestrial baselines. Heavy sterile neutrinos may experience terrestrial loss of coherence, and we calculate both the distance over which this occurs and the energy resolution required to observe the effect. By treating the pion-muon-neutrino-environment system quantum mechanically, neutrino beam coherence properties are obtained without assuming arbitrary spatial or temporal scales at the neutrino production vertex.