Neutrino wave packets in quantum field theory

Abstract

We present a model of neutrino oscillations in the framework of quantum field theory in which the propagating neutrino and the particles participating to the production and detection processes are described by wave packets. The neutrino state is a superposition of massive neutrino wave packets determined by the production process, as naturally expected from causality. We show that the energies and momenta of the massive neutrino components relevant for neutrino oscillations are in general different from the average energies and momenta of the propagating massive neutrino wave packets, because of the effects of the detection process. Our results confirm the correctness of the standard expression for the oscillation length of extremely relativistic neutrinos and the existence of a coherence length. © SISSA/ISAS 2002.