Neutrino Oscillations in Noisy Media

Abstract

We develop the Redfield equation for delta-correlated gaussian noise and apply it to the case of two neutrino flavor or spin precession in the presence of a noisy matter density or magnetic field, respectively. The criteria under which physical fluctuations can be well approximated by the delta-correlated gaussian noise for the above cases are examined. Current limits on the possible neutrino magnetic moment and solar magnetic field suggest that a reasonably noisy solar magnetic field would not appreciably affect the solar electron neutrino flux. However, if the solar electron density has fluctuations of a few percent of the local density and a small enough correlation length, the MSW effect is suppressed for a range of parameters.

Comments: Latex (uses the epsf macro), 14 pages of text, 17 postscript figures included. Full postscript version available by anonymous ftp from wisnuf.physics.wisc.edu:/pub/preprints. MAD-NT-94-07