Non-abelian gauge structure in neutrino mixing

We discuss the existence of a non-abelian gauge structure associated with flavor mixing. In the specific case of two flavor mixing of Dirac neutrino fields, we show that this reformulation allows to define flavor neutrino states which preserve the Poincar\'e structure. Phenomenological consequences of our analysis are explored.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Mixing and oscillations of neutral particles in Quantum Field Theory

We study the mixing of neutral particles in Quantum Field Theory: neutral boson field and Majorana field are treated in the case of mixing among two generations. We derive the orthogonality of flavor and mass representations and show how to consistently calculate oscillation formulas, which agree with previous results for charged fields and exhibit corrections with respect to the usual quantum mechanical expressions.Comment: 8 pages, revised versio

Neutrino mixing contribution to the cosmological constant

We show that the non-perturbative vacuum structure associated with neutrino mixing leads to a non-zero contribution to the value of the cosmological constant. Such a contribution comes from the specific nature of the mixing phenomenon. Its origin is completely different from the one of the ordinary contribution of a massive spinor field. We estimate this neutrino mixing contribution by using the natural cut--off appearing in the quantum field theory formalism for neutrino mixing and oscillation.Comment: 7 page

Lepton charge and neutrino mixing in pion decay processes

We consider neutrino mixing and oscillations in quantum field theory and compute the neutrino lepton charge in decay processes where neutrinos are generated. We also discuss the proper definition of flavor charge and states and clarify the issues of the possibility of different mass parameters in field mixing.Comment: 13 page

Physical flavor neutrino states

The problem of representation for flavor states of mixed neutrinos is discussed. By resorting to recent results, it is shown that a specific representation exists in which a number of conceptual problems are resolved. Phenomenological consequences of our analysis are explored.Comment: Presented at 5th International Workshop DICE2010: Space-Time-Matter - Current Issues in Quantum Mechanics and Beyon

Quantization, group contraction and zero point energy

We study algebraic structures underlying 't Hooft's construction relating classical systems with the quantum harmonic oscillator. The role of group contraction is discussed. We propose the use of SU(1,1) for two reasons: because of the isomorphism between its representation Hilbert space and that of the harmonic oscillator and because zero point energy is implied by the representation structure. Finally, we also comment on the relation between dissipation and quantization.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Fock States of Flavor Neutrinos are Unphysical

It is shown that it is possible to construct an infinity of Fock spaces of flavor neutrinos depending on arbitrary unphysical mass parameters, in agreement with the theory of Blasone and Vitiello in the version proposed by Fujii, Habe and Yabuki. However, we show that these flavor neutrino Fock spaces are clever mathematical constructs without physical relevance, because the hypothesis that neutrinos produced or detected in charged-current weak interaction processes are described by flavor neutrino Fock states implies that measurable quantities depend on the arbitrary unphysical flavor neutrino mass parameters.Comment: 11 page

Time-to-space conversion in quantum field theory of flavor mixing

We consider the problem of time-to-space conversion in quantum field theory of flavor mixing using a generalization of the wave-packet method in quantum mechanics. We work entirely within the canonical formalism of creation and annihilation operators that allows us, unlike the usual wave-packet formulation, to include the nontrivial effect due to flavor condensation in the vacuum