1

In the neutrino sector neutral particle oscillation occurs which gives rise to neutrino oscillation. From my currrent understanding , the observation of the neutrino oscillation occurred because the coherence length of this phenomenon is sufficiently large that the state does not become de-coherent in the length scales of the phenomena studied. E.g. the state is still coherent when it arrives on earth after being produced in the sun.

I was wondering why I never heard about flavor oscillation in the lepton sector, e.g. $e^{-}$ ⇄ $\mu^{-}$ ⇄ $\tau^{-}$.

Is this because the coherence length (which should be inversely proportional to the mass of the considered particle) is so short that the phenomenon is completely negligible?

Stefano Barone
  • 575

1 Answers1

1

Yes; try the neutrino oscillation formula for the idealized system of ultrarelativistic charged leptons, say e and μ.

In natural units, L ≈ π E / Δm²; so, for a μ with mass of 0.1 GeV and an e of relatively negligible mass, zipping at an E of hundreds of GeVs, we are talking about fermis for L, the oscillation length.

Can't think of a realistic lepton flavor oscillation experiment not involving quadrillions of oscillations vitiating coherence...

Cosmas Zachos
  • 62,595