Theory of Neutrino Oscillations

Abstract

We review critically the main assumptions on which the standard theory of neutrino oscillations is based. We show that all assumptions are realistic, except the so-called "equal momentum assumption", which however is irrelevant. We briefly review the covariant plane-wave derivation of neutrino oscillations and a quantum field theoretical wave packet model of neutrino oscillations. We show that both approaches lead to the standard expression for the oscillation phase. The wave packet model allows also to describe the coherence of the oscillations and the localization of the production and detection processes.

10 pages. Talk presented at the 11th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics, 21-27 August 2003, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia