Neutrino Mixing and Oscillations in Quantum Field Theory

Abstract

We show that the generator of field mixing transformations in Quantum Field Theory induces a non trivial structure in the vacuum which turns out to be a coherent state, both for bosons and for fermions, although with a different condensate structure. The Fock space for mixed fields is unitarily inequivalent to the Fock space of the massive (free) fields in the infinite volume limit. As a practical application we study neutrino mixing and oscillations. A new oscillation formula is found where the oscillation amplitude is depressed, with respect to the usual one, by a factor which is momentum and mass dependent. In the relativistic limit, the usual formula is recovered. We finally discuss in some detail phenomenological features of the modified oscillation formula.

13 pages, LaTex + 1 figure. Talk given at the XIXth International Conference on Particle Physics and Astrophysics in the Standard Model and Beyond, Bystra, Poland, September 19-26, 1995