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Stars and Stellar Processes

Mike Guidry

Chapter 11

Neutrino Flavor Oscillations - all with Video Answers

Educators


Chapter Questions

04:31

Problem 1

Show that if a neutrino has a mass $m_v$ that is very small, a spread in energy $\Delta E_v$ for a set of detected neutrinos having an average flight time $t$ from source to detector will lead to a spread in arrival times given by
$$
\frac{\Delta t}{t}=\frac{\Delta v}{v} \simeq \frac{m_v^2}{E_v^2} \frac{\Delta E_v}{E_v},
$$
where $E_v$ is the average energy and $\Delta E_v$ is the spread in energy. Some $19 \bar{v}_{\mathrm{e}}$ events were detected on Earth from Supernova 1987A. These neutrinos arrived over about a 10 -second time span with an average energy of about $25 \mathrm{MeV}$ and a spread in energy of about 10 $\mathrm{MeV}$. Use these results to place an upper limit on the $v_{\mathrm{e}}$ (and thus $v_{\mathrm{e}}$ ) mass, assuming the supernova to have occurred about 170,000 lightyears away.

Suzanne W.
Suzanne W.
Numerade Educator
02:41

Problem 2

Show that in a 2-flavor ( $v_{\mathrm{e}}$ and $v_\mu$ ) model of neutrino oscillations, if the two energies $E_1$ and $E_2$ are approximately equal and much larger than the neutrino masses, then ( $\hbar=c=1$ units)
$$
E_2-E_1 \simeq \frac{\Delta m^2}{2 E}
$$
where $E_1 \sim E_2 \equiv E$ and $\Delta m^2 \equiv m_2^2-m_1^2$. Thus, show that the probability for flavor survival and conversion as a function of distance traveled $r \sim c t$ may be expressed as
$$
\begin{gathered}
P\left(v_{\mathrm{e}} \rightarrow v_{\mathrm{e}}, r\right)=1-\sin ^2(2 \theta) \sin ^2\left(\frac{\pi r}{L}\right), \\
P\left(v_{\mathrm{e}} \rightarrow v_\mu, r\right)=\sin ^2(2 \theta) \sin ^2\left(\frac{\pi r}{L}\right),
\end{gathered}
$$
where $\theta$ is the mixing angle and the oscillation length $L \equiv 4 \pi E / \Delta m^2$ is the distance (assuming $v \sim c$ ) over which one complete flavor oscillation occurs.

Penny Riley
Penny Riley
Numerade Educator

Problem 3

Starting from the neutrino flavor eigenstates in a 2 -flavor model with vacuum mixing angle $\theta$,
$$
\begin{aligned}
& \left|v_{\mathrm{e}}\right\rangle=\cos \theta\left|v_1\right\rangle+\sin \theta\left|v_2\right\rangle \\
& \left|v_\mu\right\rangle=-\sin \theta\left|v_1\right\rangle+\cos \theta\left|v_2\right\rangle,
\end{aligned}
$$
show that the mass eigenstates may be expressed as $$
\begin{aligned}
& \left|v_1\right\rangle=\cos \theta\left|v_{\mathrm{e}}\right\rangle-\sin \theta\left|v_\mu\right\rangle \\
& \left|v_2\right\rangle=\sin \theta\left|v_{\mathrm{e}}\right\rangle+\cos \theta\left|v_\mu\right\rangle,
\end{aligned}
$$
so that the time-evolved neutrino state
$$
|v(t)\rangle=\cos \theta e^{-i E_1 t}\left|v_1(0)\right\rangle+\sin \theta e^{-i E_2 t}\left|v_2(0)\right\rangle
$$
may be written as the mixed-flavor state
$$
\begin{aligned}
|v(t)\rangle= & \left(\cos ^2 \theta e^{-i E_1 t}+\sin ^2 \theta e^{-i E_2 t}\right)\left|v_{\mathrm{c}}\right\rangle \\
& +\sin \theta \cos \theta\left(-e^{-i E_1 t}+e^{-i E_2 t}\right)\left|v_\mu\right\rangle .
\end{aligned}
$$
Use this result to show that the probabilities to detect a $v_{\mathrm{e}}$ or $v_\mu$ after a time $t$ are given by
$$
\begin{gathered}
P\left(v_{\mathrm{c}} \rightarrow v_{\mathrm{e}}, t\right)=1-\frac{1}{2} \sin ^2(2 \theta)\left[1-\cos \left(E_2-E_1\right) t\right], \\
P\left(v_{\mathrm{e}} \rightarrow v_\mu, t\right)=\frac{1}{2} \sin ^2(2 \theta)\left[1-\cos \left(E_2-E_1\right) t\right],
\end{gathered}
$$
respectively.***

Check back soon!
01:55

Problem 4

A smoking-gun signature of a Majorana mass for neutrinos (see Section 11.2.2) would be the observation of neutrinoless double $\beta$ decay, as discussed in Box 11.2. Which of the following isotopes are potentially candidates for double $\beta$-decay experiments: ${ }^{76} \mathrm{Ge},{ }^{78} \mathrm{Ge}$, ${ }^{82} \mathrm{Se},{ }^{80} \mathrm{Se},{ }^{238} \mathrm{U}$, and ${ }^{236} \mathrm{U}$ ? Hint: Compare the masses relative to those for $\beta$-decay daughters.

Narayan Hari
Narayan Hari
Numerade Educator
04:17

Problem 5

Show that for a general $2 \times 2$ matrix
$$
A=\left(\begin{array}{ll}
\alpha & \beta \\
\gamma & \delta
\end{array}\right)
$$
the eigenvalues are given by
$$
\lambda_{ \pm}=\frac{1}{2} T \pm \sqrt{\frac{1}{4} T^2-D}
$$
where $T \equiv \operatorname{Tr} A$ is the trace of $A$ and $D \equiv \operatorname{det} A$ is the determinant of A.

Andrija Isakov
Andrija Isakov
Numerade Educator

Problem 6

From basic quantum mechanics we may expect the transformation between mass and flavor basis states in a 2 -flavor neutrino model to be unitary and to have unit determinant.
(a) Prove that a unitary transformation preserves matrix elements. Hint: This is trivial if you use the Dirac notation for matrix elements.
(b) Prove that the most general form of a $2 \times 2$ unitary matrix $U$ with det $U=1$ can be parameterized as
$$
U=\left(\begin{array}{cc}
a & b \\
-b^* & a^*
\end{array}\right),
$$
subject to the constraint $a a^*+b b^*=1$. Thus justify the parameterization of the transformation implemented by Eq. (11.2). Verify that the transformation (11.2) is both unitary and orthogonal.

Check back soon!
02:41

Problem 7

Show that the averaged neutrino probabilities are given by Eq. (11.12) in a 2-flavor model described by Eq. (11.9). If for neutrinos in vacuum $\theta=20^{\circ}, E=5 \mathrm{MeV}$, and $\Delta m^2=10^{-5} \mathrm{eV}^2$, what is the minimum distance over which the probabilities must be averaged for Eq. (11.12) to be valid, and what is the averaged probability to detect an electron neutrino if the neutrino was produced as an electron neutrino?***

Penny Riley
Penny Riley
Numerade Educator
02:30

Problem 8

Show that the classical probability $P_{\text {class }}\left(v_{\mathrm{e}} \rightarrow v_{\mathrm{e}}\right)$ of Section 11.5.3 is given by Eq. (11.15) for a 2-flavor model.***

Stanley Enemuo
Stanley Enemuo
Numerade Educator
01:41

Problem 9

(a) Repeat the derivation of Eq. (111) starting from Eq. (1110) and the observation that $\hbar c=197.3 \times 10^{-13} \mathrm{MeV} \mathrm{cm}=1$ in $\hbar=c=1$ units. (b) In $\hbar=c=1$ units the weak coupling constant takes the value $G_{\mathrm{F}} \equiv G_{\mathrm{F}} /(\hbar c)^3=1.16637 \times 10^{-5} \mathrm{GeV}^{-2}\left[\right.$ [ ] . Express $G_{\mathrm{F}}$ in

Tara Appleyard
Tara Appleyard
Numerade Educator
03:29

Problem 10

Observation of neutrino oscillations implies a finite mass for neutrinos and thus physics beyond the Standard Model. One idea for extending the Standard Model is to add the missing right-handed component of the neutrino, which is assumed to be very massive since it is not seen. By some elementary arguments, it is speculated that the 2-flavor neutrino mass matrix M (see Section 12.2) for such a minimal extension of the Standard Model to include a heavy righthanded neutrino may be written
$$
\mathscr{M} \simeq\left(\begin{array}{cc}
0 & m \\
m & M
\end{array}\right),
$$
where it is expected that $m$ is of order $100 \mathrm{GeV}$ and $M$ is of order $10^{15} \mathrm{GeV}$. (a) Find the eigenvalues of this matrix and show that this gives one very light and one very massive eigenvalue for the neutrino masses. Hint: See Problem 11.5. (b) Find the corresponding eigenvectors and argue that they can be interpreted approximately as a left-handed Standard Model neutrino but with a small but non-zero mass, and a right-handed neutrino with mass much too large to be detected in present experiments.

Carlos Henrique De Lima
Carlos Henrique De Lima
Numerade Educator