The framework of the generalized theory of quantum measurement provides some theoretical tools for computing flavor associated energies correlated to the von-Neumann entropy of a composed system. After defining flavor-averaged and flavor-weighted energies, that are respectively supported by nonselective (selective) quantum measurement schemes, the right correlation between the energies of flavor eigenstates and their measurement probabilities can be obtained. Our results from the composed quantum system framework show that the nonselective measurement scheme for computing flavor-weighted energies is consistent with predictions from single-particle quantum mechanics. As an application of our results, through the expressions for neutrino effective mass values, it is straightforwardly verified that cosmological background neutrino energy densities could be obtained from the coherent superposition of mass eigenstates.
The framework of the generalized theory of quantum measurement provides some theoretical tools for computing flavor associated energies correlated to the von-Neumann entropy of a composed system. After defining flavor-averaged and flavor-weighted energies, that are respectively supported by nonselective (selective) quantum measurement schemes, the right correlation between the energies of flavor eigenstates and their measurement probabilities can be obtained. Our results from the composed quantum system framework show that the nonselective measurement scheme for computing flavor-weighted energies is consistent with predictions from single-particle quantum mechanics. As an application of our results, through the expressions for neutrino effective mass values, it is straightforwardly verified that cosmological background neutrino energy densities could be obtained from the coherent superposition of mass eigenstates.
Abstract We revisit the theory of neutrino oscillations and describe it through the formalism of weak measurements with postselection. It is well understood that due to the large momentum uncertainty in detection, there is no collapse of the neutrino wavefunction in the momentum or energy basis, and the mass eigenstates are detected coherently. Here we show that postselection, which projects the system to a final flavor state, deforms the system wavefunction in such a way that the momentum detected is not the expectation value of the neutrino mass eigenstates momenta, but the corresponding weak value. We use the weak values to describe the intermediate state in the oscillation process, avoiding problems in defining probability currents for particle states with mass superposition.
Coherence, which represents the superposition of orthogonal states, is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics and can also be precisely defined within quantum resource theory. Thus exploring quantum coherence in neutrino oscillations can not only help in examining the intrinsic quantum nature but can also explore their potential applications in quantum information technologies. Previous studies on quantum coherence have focused on neutrino flavor oscillations (FO). However, FO imply that neutrinos have mass, and this can lead to the generation of a tiny but finite magnetic dipole moment of neutrinos through quantum loop diagrams at higher orders of perturbative expansion of the interaction. This electromagnetic property of neutrinos can induce spin flavor oscillations (SFO) in the presence of an external magnetic field and hence is expected to enrich the study of coherence. In this work, we investigate quantum coherence in neutrino SFO with three flavor mixing within the interstellar as well as intergalactic magnetic fields, quantified by the l 1 norm and the relative entropy of coherence, and express these measures in terms of neutrino SFO probabilities. For FO, coherence measures can sustain higher values (say, within 50% of the maximum) over distances of several kilometers, which are relevant for terrestrial experiments like reactor and accelerator neutrinos. However, for SFO, we find that the coherence scale can extend to astrophysical distances, spanning from kiloparsecs to gigaparsecs.
In this work, we analyze two-flavor neutrino oscillations within the framework of quantum estimation theory (QET). We compute the quantum Fischer information (QFI) for the mixing angle [Formula: see text] and show that mass measurements are the ones that achieve optimal precision. We also study the Fischer information (FI) associated with flavor measurements and show that they are optimized at specific neutrino times-of-flight. Therefore, although the usual population measurement does not realize the precision limit set by the QFI, it can in principle be implemented with the best possible sensitivity to [Formula: see text]. We investigate how these quantifiers relate to the single-particle, mode entanglement in neutrino oscillations. We demonstrate that this form of entanglement does not enhance either of them. In particular, our results show that in single-particle settings, entanglement is not directly connected with the enhancement of precision in metrological tasks.
Abstract In this paper, we consider the quantum correlations, coherence and entanglement, in neutrino oscillation. We find that the l 1 -norm as a coherence measure is equal to the sum of the three possible concurrences for measuring the entanglement among different flavor modes which were calculated in the paper by Blasone M. et al ., EPL , 112 (2015) 20007. Our result shows that the origin of the flavor entanglement in neutrino oscillation is the same as that of quantum coherence. Furthermore, in the wave packet framework, the variation of the l 1 -norm is investigated by varying the wave packet width . As expected, the amount of coherence increases by due to the increase in overlapping of the mass eigenstates.
As the lynchpin of all quantum correlations, quantum coherence is fundamental for distinguishing quantum systems from classical ones and is essential for realizing quantum advantages in areas such as computation, communication, and metrology. In this study, we investigate the relationship between quantum coherence and neutrino oscillations within the two and three flavor-mode qubit frameworks. Our analysis extends beyond the commonly used l 1 -norm and relative entropy of coherence to include all relevant measures of coherence such as robustness of coherence, coherence concurrence, trace-norm distance measure of coherence, coherence of formation, Schatten- p -norm-based functionals, geometric coherence and logarithmic coherence rank, each offering unique insights into the quantum correlations in these systems. Notably, while the l 1 -norm and relative entropy-based measures apply to general quantum states, the other measures are particularly relevant for entangled systems, highlighting the critical role of entanglement in neutrino oscillations. We present a detailed methodology for calculating coherence measures in both two-flavor and three-flavor mixing scenarios, contributing to a deeper understanding of how quantum coherence manifests and evolves in mode-entangled neutrino systems. Our findings emphasize the potential of these systems as robust candidates for quantum information tasks, facilitated by the weak interaction nature of neutrinos.
Neutrino oscillations are at the forefront of advances in Physics beyond the Standard Model. Increasing accuracy in measurements of the neutrino mixing matrix is an important challenge in current experiments. It depends on parameters that do not directly correspond to observables of the neutrino system. This type of estimation problem is handled by Quantum Estimation Theory (QET) via the Fisher Information (FI) and the Quantum Fisher Information (QFI). In this work, we analyze two-flavor neutrino oscillations within the framework of QET. We compute the QFI for the mixing angle θ and show that mass measurements are the ones that achieve optimal precision. We also study the FI associated with flavor measurements and show that they are optimized at specific neutrino times-of-flight. Therefore, although the usual population measurement does not realize the precision limit set by the QFI, it can in principle be implemented with the best possible sensitivity to θ. We study how these quantifiers relate to the single-particle, mode entanglement. We demonstrate that this form of entanglement does not enhance neither of them. In particular, this shows that in single-particle settings, entanglement is not directly connected with the optimal precision in metrological tasks.