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Re: Experiments At Super K



On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, Robert B Zannelli wrote:

However since I don't know any good jokes about PHD's and phone booths
maybe I shouldn't be posting here.

If you believe this, then you probably have not been a subscriber
for very long.

The question is: do the ratios of the various flavors of neutrino
eventually reach an equilibrium mixture after a sufficiently long path
length. The Georgi Glashow paper "Neutrinos on Earth and in Heaven" postulate
a time independent matrix to calculate the ratios of the three flavors of
neutrino after these neutrino have "traveled a great distance"
The standard treatment is to postulate a mass matrix, which by
definition is time independent. The mass eigenvalues are not flavor
eigenvalues; charged current observation of a neutrino catches it in a
state of definite flavor (what is observed is a e, mu or tau). Also,
creation of a neutrino provides a definite flavor initial state, since
the neutrino is created in association with a charged lepton.
Between creation and observation, the neutrino state oscillates
with a frequency given by the mass difference of the different
eigenstates. The mathematics that describes this situation is essentially
that which describes an oscillating system with multiple normal modes.

However the
probability equation developed in the Super K paper does not seem to support
this at all.
I think Leigh was trying to get you to say what "Super K" paper
you are referring to.

My own personal view is that since the in transit neutrinos are
in a superposition state there is no way an equilibrium state can be
established. Having no defined flavor until measured the equation describes a
cyclic probability for each neutrino flavor.

If "cyclic" means "oscillatory" you are essentially correct.

Regards,
Jack
--
While [Jane] Austen's majestic use of language is surely diminished in its
translation to English, it is hoped that the following translation conveys
at least a sense of her exquisite command of her native tongue.
Greg Nagan from "Sense and Sensibility" in
<The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>