Neutrinoövergångar

Neutrinoövergångar, often referred to as neutrino oscillations, are a quantum mechanical phenomenon where neutrinos can change their flavor. Neutrinos are fundamental subatomic particles that exist in three known types, or "flavors": electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino. These flavors are associated with the charged leptons they are produced with (electron, muon, and tau).

The phenomenon of neutrino oscillation implies that neutrinos have a non-zero mass. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, neutrinos were initially considered massless. However, observations of neutrino oscillations, particularly from experiments studying solar neutrinos and atmospheric neutrinos, provided conclusive evidence that neutrinos do indeed possess mass, albeit very small.

The process of neutrino oscillation arises from the fact that the flavor states of neutrinos are not the same as their mass states. The flavor states are the states that interact with other particles in specific ways, defining their flavor. The mass states are the states that propagate through space with definite masses and energies. When a neutrino is created in a specific flavor state, it can be described as a superposition of different mass states. As the neutrino travels, these mass states evolve differently in time due to their differing masses, leading to a change in the overall flavor state of the neutrino. This change in flavor can be observed when the neutrino interacts with matter at a later point. The probability of a neutrino oscillating from one flavor to another depends on the differences in the squared masses of the neutrino mass states and the distances traveled.