Neutrino flavor oscillation is a quantum phenomenon that describes how neutrinos, which are elementary particles with very small mass, change their type or "flavor" as they propagate through space. There are three known flavors of neutrinos: electron (νₑ), muon (νₘ), and tau (νₜ). When produced in a specific flavor, such as an electron neutrino, the neutrino can oscillate into a different flavor over time due to the differences in their mass eigenstates. This process is governed by quantum mechanics and can be described mathematically by the mixing angles and mass differences between the neutrino states, leading to a probability of flavor change given by:
where is the probability of transitioning from flavor to flavor , is the mixing angle, is the mass-squared difference between the states, is the distance traveled, and is the energy of the neutrino. This phenomenon has significant implications for our understanding of particle physics and the universe, particularly in
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