Field-Theoretical Treatment of Neutrino Oscillations: The Strength of the Canonical Oscillation Formula

Abstract

We discuss conceptual aspects of neutrino oscillations with the main emphasis on the field-theoretical approach. This approach includes the neutrino source and detector processes and allows to obtain the neutrino transition or survival probabilities as cross sections derived from the Feynman diagram of the combined source - detection process. In this context, the neutrinos which are supposed to oscillate appear as propagators of the neutrino mass eigenfields, connecting the source and detection processes. We consider also the question why the canonical neutrino oscillation formula is so robust against corrections and discuss the nature of the oscillating neutrino state emerging in the field-theoretical approach.

15 pages, Revtex, Contribution to "Neutrino Mixing", Meeting in Honour of Samoil Bilenky's 70th Birthday, Torino, March 25-27, 1999