Effects of Neutrino Decay on Oscillation Probabilities

It is now well accepted that neutrinos oscillate as a quantum mechanical result of a misalignment between their mass-eigenstates and the flavor-eigenstates. We study neutrino decay—the idea that there may be new, light states that the three Standard Model flavors may be able to decay into. We consider what effects this neutrino decay would have on the observed oscillation probabilities.The Hamiltonian governs how the states change with time, so we use it to calculate an oscillation amplitude, and from that, the oscillation probability. We simplify the theoretical probabilities using results from experimental data, such as the neutrino mixing angles and mass differences. By exploring what values of the decay parameters are physically allowable, we can begin to understand just how large the decay parameters can be. We compare the probabilities in the case of no neutrino decay and in the case of maximum neutrino decay to determine how much of an effect neutrino decay could have on observations, and discuss the ability of future experiments to detect these differences.We also examine neutrino decay in the realm of CP invariance, and found that it is a new source of CP violation. Our work indicates that there is a difference in the oscillation probabilities between particle transitions and their corresponding antiparticle transitions. If neutrino decay were proven true, it could be an important factor in understanding leptogenesis and the particle-antiparticle asymmetry present in our Universe.