Gravitational effects on the neutrino oscillation

Abstract

The propagation of neutrinos in a gravitational field is studied. A method of calculating a covariant quantum-mechanical phase in a curved space-time is presented. The result is used to calculate gravitational effects on the neutrino oscillation in the presence of a gravitational field. We restrict our discussion to the case of the Schwarzschild metric. Specifically, the cases of the radial propagation and the nonradial propagation are considered. A possible application to gravitational lensing of neutrinos is also suggested. © 1997 The American Physical Society.