Speaker
Description
Nuclear fusion inside the Sun produces an enormous flux of electron neutrinos. However, solar neutrino experiments detected fewer electron neutrinos than predicted by theoretical models. This discrepancy was resolved by discovering that neutrinos oscillate into other neutrinos ($\nu_e \rightarrow \nu_\mu$ or $\nu_\tau$) during propagation. This indicates that the QM states in which neutrinos are produced are not eigenstates of the Hamiltonian responsible for their time propagation. This phenomenon has a nice analogy with spin in quantum mechanics: a state with $S_z = \frac{1}{2}$ at $t=0$ may have $S_z = +\frac{1}{2}$ or $-\frac{1}{2}$ at later times if the interactions that govern the state propagation do not commute with $S_z$. In this project, we study solar neutrino oscillations using a spin analogy. We start with two neutrino Flavors, extend to three Flavors, and extend the idea to MSW effects inside the Sun.
Other Fields of Research (Track) for Abstract
This project and presentation is specifically about neutrino oscillation. The tools which I use are fundamental to quantum mechanics. neutrino physics as a field comes under particle physics.
Thank you.
| Nature of work | Theoretical |
|---|