Speaker
Mr
Cheng-Hsien Li
(School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities)
Description
We present a pedagogical discussion on the time evolution of neutrino wave packet in free space. A common treatment is to keep terms up to quadratic order in the energy expansion so that the Fourier transform can be evaluated analytically via Gaussian integral. This leads to a solution
representing a ”flat” Gaussian distribution with a constant longitudinal width and a spreading transverse width. It is tempting to conclude that special relativity is violated if the neutrino wave packet is detected on its edge. However, we demonstrate that by including higher order terms in
the energy expansion the correct geometry of the wave packet will be restored. The corrected solution has a spherical wave front so that it complies with special relativity.
Primary author
Mr
Cheng-Hsien Li
(School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities)
Co-author
Prof.
Yong-Zhong Qian
(School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities)
