Neutrino Flavor Oscilation

Neutrinos are very elusive and have been the subject of inquiry for a long time. One of its most interesting behaviors is its ability to spontaneously change its flavor. It just seems to change from an electron neutrino to a muon neutrino to a tau neutrino without warning.

The way this works is that a neutrino is a quantum mixture of all three flavors. When we detect it, we only detect one of its flavors. In other words, it is in a superposition of each flavor.

The analogy above isn't perfect. It is important to know that when we detect the neutrino, it fully commits to that flavor. The other two aren't hidden or anything.

There are three mass states for neutrinos, which determine how often they show up as each flavor state. In mass state 1, an electron neutrino shows up twice the amount. In mass state 2, there is an equal frequency for all three flavor states. For mass state 3, there is a two percent chance of an electron neutrino showing up.

This is an important feature of neutrinos because these mass states have their own mass. As a result, the neutrino flavors (the electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino) don't have a well-defined mass.

Overall, when a neutrino is interacting, either with us or other particles, it is in a flavor state. When it is traveling, it is in a mass state.

Because these three mass states have different masses, they travel at different speeds. To us, it gives the effect of the quantum mixture changing over time. This change is what gives us our oscillations. At certain distances, the chance of a neutrino flavor goes up and down.

The study of neutrino oscillations is an interesting one. There are still questions about it, and hopefully, they will be answered in time.