Pauli Center Blackboard Seminar

Non-abelian Boltzmann equations for interactions of flavor mixed quantum states and neutrino oscillations

by Günter Sigl (Univ. Hamburg)

Europe/Berlin
Sem. Raum 2 (DESY Hamburg)

Sem. Raum 2

DESY Hamburg

Description
The Boltzmann equation usually describes the evolution of occupation numbers which are real non-negative numbers of a particular field in a given momentum mode. In the case where this field can be in a quantum superposition of n>1 "flavor" states,one can generalize this to a "non-abelian Boltzmann equation" which describes the evolution of n x n density matrices which generalize the occupation numbers at given momentum. This has various interesting applications such as in the description of neutrino oscillations in dense matter including the effects of scattering and annihilation,but potentially also in other areas such as in flavor mixing in leptogenesis.