Neutrino propagation in matter using the wave packet approach

Abstract

We study the oscillations and conversions of relativistic neutrinos propagating in matter of variable density using the wave packet formalism. We show how the oscillation and coherence lengths are modified in comparison with the case of oscillations in vacuum. Secondly, we demonstrate how the equation of motion for two neutrino flavors can be formally solved for almost arbitrary density profile. We calculate finally how the use of wave packets alters the nonadiabatic level crossing probabilities. For the most common physical environments the corrections due to the width of the wave packet do not lead to observable effects.

Comments: 21 pages, LATEX, no figures