Revisiting series expansions of neutrino oscillation and decay probabilities in matter

Abstract

We present analytic expressions for three-flavor neutrino oscillations in presence of invisible neutrino decay and matter effects. Using the well-known Cayley-Hamilton formalism, the leading-order terms are derived for oscillation probabilities in all major channels assuming the neutrino mass eigenstate $\nu_3$ to decay into sterile neutrinos. Our work extends and complements previous studies utilizing the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, providing the series expansions for $\nu_e \rightarrow \nu_e$, $\nu_e \rightarrow \nu_\mu$, $\nu_e \rightarrow \nu_\tau$, $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_\mu$, $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_\tau$ and $\nu_\tau \rightarrow \nu_\tau$. The accuracy of the analytical formulas is investigated by comparing the results with numerically calculated probabilities. We also comment on the implications on unitarity violation.

Locations

• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF