TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fiorillo, Damiano Francesco Giuseppe
AU  - Raffelt, Georg G.
TI  - Collective flavor conversions are interactions of neutrinos with quantized flavor waves
JO  - Physical review letters
VL  - 134
IS  - arXiv:2502.06935
SN  - 0031-9007
CY  - College Park, Md.
PB  - APS
M1  - PUBDB-2025-01904
M1  - arXiv:2502.06935
SP  - 211003
PY  - 2025
N1  - 5 pages, 1 figures, plus Supplemental Material
AB  - Collective oscillations in dense neutrino gases (flavor waves) are notable for their instabilities that cause fast flavor conversion. We develop a quantum theory of interacting neutrinos and flavor wave quanta, which are analogous to plasmons, but also carry flavor. The emission or absorption of such flavor plasmons ψ, or flavomons, changes the neutrino flavor. When an angular crossing occurs, the process ν<sub>μ</sub>→ν<sub>e</sub>+ψ is more rapid than its inverse along the direction of the crossing, triggering stimulated ψ emission and fast instability. Calculating the rate via Feynman diagrams matches the fast instability growth rate. Our novel ν and ψ kinetic equations, corresponding to quasi-linear theory, describe instability evolution without resolving the small scales of the flavomon wavelength, potentially overcoming the main challenge of fast flavor evolution.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - 40531039
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:001509167800006
DO  - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.211003
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/630944
ER  -