Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams
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 met...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95839 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-1453 |
| _version_ | 1826197549082476544 |
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| author | Jones, Benjamin James Poyner |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Jones, Benjamin James Poyner |
| author_sort | Jones, Benjamin James Poyner |
| collection | MIT |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:49:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/95839 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:49:22Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/958392022-09-27T15:14:21Z Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams Jones, Benjamin James Poyner Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Jones, Benjamin James Poyner 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. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-1205175) 2015-03-05T15:28:38Z 2015-03-05T15:28:38Z 2015-03 2015-01 2015-03-04T23:00:06Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1550-7998 1550-2368 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95839 Jones, B. J. P. “Dynamical Pion Collapse and the Coherence of Conventional Neutrino Beams.” Physical Review D 91.5 (2015). © 2015 American Physical Society. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-1453 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.053002 Physical Review D Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Jones, Benjamin James Poyner Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| title | Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| title_full | Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| title_fullStr | Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| title_short | Dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| title_sort | dynamical pion collapse and the coherence of conventional neutrino beams |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95839 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-1453 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jonesbenjaminjamespoyner dynamicalpioncollapseandthecoherenceofconventionalneutrinobeams |