Tachyonic Field Theory and Neutrino Mass Running

Abstract

In this paper three things are done. (i) We investigate the analogues of Cerenkov radiation for the decay of a superluminal neutrino and calculate the Cerenkov angles for the emission of a photon through a W loop, and for a collinear electron-positron pair, assuming the tachyonic dispersion relation for the superluminal neutrino. The decay rate of a freely propagating neutrino is found to depend on the shape of the assumed dispersion relation, and is found to decrease with decreasing tachyonic mass of the neutrino. (ii)We discuss a few properties of the tachyonic Dirac equation (symmetries and plane-wave solutions), which may be relevant for the description of superluminal neutrinos seen by the OPERA experiment, and discuss the calculation of the tachyonic propagator. (iii) In the absence of a commonly accepted tachyonic field theory, and in view of an apparent "running" of the observed neutrino mass with the energy, we write down a model Lagrangian, which describes a Yukawa-type interaction of a neutrino coupling to a scalar background field via a scalar-minus-pseudoscalar interaction. This constitutes an extension of the standard model. If the interaction is strong, then it leads to a substantial renormalization-group "running" of the neutrino mass and could potentially explain the experimental observations.

Department(s)

Physics

Keywords and Phrases

Cosmic Rays; Gauge Field Theories; Neutrino, Muon, Pion, And Other Elementary Particles; Relativistic Wave Equations; Renormalization Group Methods; Theory Of Quantized Fields

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1895-1082

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2012 Central European Science Journals, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2012

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