Oscillations of Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos and the Solar Neutrino Problem

Abstract

The oscillations of pseudo-Dirac neutrinos in matter are discussed and applied to the solar neutrino problem. Several scenarios such as both ${\nu }_e$ and ${\nu }_{\mu }$ being pseudo-Dirac and only ${\nu }_e$ or ${\nu }_{\mu }$ being pseudo-Dirac are examined. It is shown that the allowed region in the mass-mixing angle parameter space obtained by comparing the solar neutrino data with the calculations based on the standard solar model and the MSW effect is not unique. The results depend on the nature of neutrinos; for example, if both ${\nu }_e$ and ${\nu }_{\mu }$ are pseudo-Dirac, the allowed region determined by the current solar neutrino data does not overlap with that obtained in the usual case of pure Dirac or Majorana neutrinos.

Comments: 12 pages, 2 figures (not included)