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arXiv:2310.12124 · Symmetry

Time–Energy Uncertainty Relation for Neutrino Oscillations: Historical Development, Applications, and Future Prospects

Giuseppe Gaetano Luciano, L. A. Smaldone

Published Nov 8, 2023• 5 citations

Abstract

The time–energy uncertainty relation (TEUR) plays a fundamental role in quantum mechanics, as it allows the grasping of peculiar aspects of a variety of phenomena based on very general principles and symmetries of the theory. Using the Mandelstam–Tamm method, TEUR has recently been derived for neutrino oscillations by connecting the uncertainty in neutrino energy with the characteristic timescale of oscillations. Interestingly, the suggested interpretation of neutrinos as unstable-like particles has proved to naturally emerge in this context. Further aspects were later discussed in semiclassical gravity theory, by computing corrections to the neutrino energy uncertainty in a generic stationary curved spacetime, and in quantum field theory, where the clock observable turns out to be identified with the non-conserved flavor charge operator. In the present work, we give an overview on the above achievements. In particular, we analyze the implications of TEUR and explore the impact of gravitational and non-relativistic effects on the standard condition for neutrino oscillations.

DOI: 10.3390/sym15112032

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The time–energy uncertainty relation (TEUR) plays a fundamental role in quantum mechanics, as it allows the grasping of peculiar aspects of a variety of phenomena based on very general principles and symmetries of the theory. Using the Mandelstam–Tamm method, TEUR has recently been derived for neutrino oscillations by connecting the uncertainty in neutrino energy with the characteristic timescale of oscillations. Interestingly, the suggested interpretation of neutrinos as unstable-like particles has proved to naturally emerge in this context. Further aspects were later discussed in semiclassical gravity theory, by computing corrections to the neutrino energy uncertainty in a generic stationary curved spacetime, and in quantum field theory, where the clock observable turns out to be identified with the non-conserved flavor charge operator. In the present work, we give an overview on the above achievements. In particular, we analyze the implications of TEUR and explore the impact of gravitational and non-relativistic effects on the standard condition for neutrino oscillations.

In the context of quantum field theory, we derive flavor-energy uncertainty relations for neutrino oscillations. By identifying the nonconserved flavor charges with the ``clock observables,'' we arrive at the Mandelstam-Tamm version of time-energy uncertainty relations. In the ultrarelativistic limit, these relations yield the well-known condition for neutrino oscillations. Ensuing nonrelativistic corrections to the latter are explicitly evaluated. The analogy among flavor states and unstable particles and a novel interpretation of our uncertainty relations, based on the unitary inequivalence of Fock spaces for flavor and massive neutrinos, are also discussed.

We discuss the role of finite time and energy uncertainty in the quantum field theory description of neutrino oscillations. In order to to achieve this goal, we review the flavor Fock-space approach and the time-energy uncertainty relation in the Mandelstam--Tamm form, expressed as a flavor-energy uncertainty relation. Such relation, together with the inequivalence of mass and flavor neutrinos Fock spaces, puts a lower bound on neutrino energy uncertainty. Similar considerations can be derived by a perturbative computation of flavor transitions, which employs the Dirac picture to compute flavor transition probability. Remarkably, both flavor Fock space and interaction picture approach lead to the same oscillation probability, within the approximation adopted in the perturbative calculation.

Abstract Neutrino oscillation is deemed as an interesting physical phenomenon and shows the nonclassical features made apparently by the Leggett–Garg inequality. The uncertainty principle is one of the fundamental features that distinguishes the quantum world to its classical counterpart. And the principle can be depicted in terms of entropy, which forms the so-called entropic uncertainty relations (EUR). In this work, the entropic uncertainty relations that are relevant to the neutrino-flavor states are investigated by comparing the experimental observation of neutrino oscillations to predictions. From two different neutrino sources, we analyze ensembles of reactor and accelerator neutrinos for different energies, including measurements performed by the Daya Bay collaboration using detectors at 0.5 and 1.6 km from their source, and by the MINOS collaboration using a detector with a 735km distance to the neutrino source. It is found that the entropy-based uncertainty conditions strengths exhibits non-monotonic evolutions as the energy increases. We also quantify the systemic quantumness measured by quantum correlation, and derive the intrinsic relationship between quantum correlation and EUR. Furthermore, we utilize EUR as a criterion to detect entanglement of neutrino-flavor state. Our results could illustrate the potential applications of neutrino oscillations on quantum information processing in the weak-interaction processes.

The time-energy uncertainty relation is often invoked as a heuristic explanation for virtual particles in interacting quantum field theories. However, this interpretation breaks down upon closer scrutiny for several reasons, particularly since virtual particles do not have a well-defined temporal extension. Although concrete derivations and interpretations of time-energy uncertainty bounds in quantum mechanics have been established, most famously by Mandelstam and Tamm in 1945, there is no known rigorous connection between these bounds and the concept of virtual particles in quantum field theory. In this work, we use a model in which the vacuum particle content associated with subcycle, spatiotemporally localised modes of a free scalar field can be converted into excitations of a rapidly-switched harmonic-oscillator Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to the conjugate field. Defining the time uncertainty as the effective duration of the detector-field interaction and identifying the contribution to the energy fluctuations of the detector resulting from the subcycle mode vacuum fluctuations, we show that a time-energy uncertainty relation is satisfied in the deep subcycle regime. Our results provide a concrete operational meaning to the textbook heuristic picture of virtual particles in quantum field theory in terms of the time-energy uncertainty principle.

Neutrino oscillations is a phenomenon which is characterized by a finite oscillation time (length). For such phenomena time-energy uncertainty relation is valid. This means that energy uncertainty is needed for oscillations to occur. We consider neutrino oscillations from this point of view. We demonstrate that for mixed neutrino states, which describe flavor neutrinos

\\nu_{e}

,

\\nu_{\\mu}

and

\\nu_{\\tau}

, translational invariance does not take place.