An Explanation on Negative Mass-Square of Neutrinos

Tsao Chang Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomy Research University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, AL 35899 Email: [email protected] Guangjiong Ni Department of Physics, Fudan University Shanghai, 200433, China Abstract: It has been known for many years that the measured masssquare of neutrino is probably negative. For solving this puzzle, we have further investigated the hypothesis that neutrinos are superluminal fermions. A new Dirac-type equation is proposed and a tachyonic quantum theory is briey discussed. This equation is equivalent to two Weyl equations coupled together via nonzero mass while respecting the maximum parity violation, and it reduces to one Weyl equation when the neutrino mass becomes zero. PACS number: 14.60.Lm, 14.60.Pq, 14.60.St

arXiv:hep-ph/0009291v3 3 Jan 2001

1. Introduction The square of the neutrino mass is measured in tritium beta decay experiments by tting the shape of the beta spectrum near endpoint. In many experiments, it has been found to be negative. Most recent data are listed in Review of Particle Physics, 2000 [1] and references therein. The weighted average from two experiments reported in 1999 [2-3] is m2 (e ) = 2.5 3.3 eV 2 (1) However, other nine measurements from dierent experiments in 19911995 are not used for averages. For instance, a value of m2 (e ) = -130 20 eV 2 with 95% condence level was measured in LLNL in 1995[4]. Furthermore, the pion decay experiment also obtained a negative value for -neutrinos [5]. m2 ( ) = 0.016 0.023 MeV 2 The negative value of the neutrino mass-square simply means: E 2 /c2 p2 = m2 (e )c2 < 0 (3) (2)

The right-hand side in Eq. (3) can be rewritten as (- m2 c2 ), then ms s has a positive value. Eq. (1) and (2) suggests that neutrinos might be particles faster than light, no matter how small the ms is. This possibility is further investigated in this paper. Based on special relativity and known as re-interpretation rule, superluminal particles were proposed by Bilaniuk et al in the Sixties [6-8]. The sign of 4-D world line element, ds2 , is associated with three classes of particles. For simplicity, let dy = dz = 0, then >0 ClassI (subluminal particles) ClassII (photon) (4)

ds2 = c2 dt2 dx2 = 0 <0 For Class III particles, mentum and energy is right-hand side of Eq. is greater than (E/c)2 .

ClassIII (superluminal particles)

i.e. superluminal particle, the relation of moshown in Eq.(3). The negative value on the (3) for superluminal particles means that p2 The velocity of a superluminal particle, us , is 2

greater than the speed of light. The momentum and energy in terms of us are as follows: p= ms us u2 /c2 1 s , E= ms c2 u2 /c2 1 s (5)

where the subscript s means superluminal particle, i.e. tachyon. From Eq. (5), it is easily seen that when us is increased, both of p and E would be decreased. This property is opposite to Class I particle. Any physical reference system is built by Class I particles (atoms, molecules etc.), which requires that any reference frame must move slower than light. On the other hand, once a superluminal particle is created in an interaction, its speed is always greater than the speed of light. Neutrino is the most possible candidate for a superluminal particle because it has left-handed spin in any reference frame. On the other hand, anti-neutrino always has right-handed spin. The rst step in this direction is usually to introduce an imaginary mass, but these eorts could not reach a point for constructing a consistent quantum theory. Some early investigations of a Dirac-type equation for tachyonic fermions can be found in Ref.[9]. An alternative approach was investigated by Chodos et al. [10]. They examined the possibility that neutrinos might be tachyonic fermions. A form of the lagrangian density for tachyonic neutrinos was proposed. Although they did not obtain a satisfatory quantum theory for tachyonic fermions, they suggested that more theoretical work would be needed to determine physically acceptable tachyonic theory. 2. A new Dirac-type equation In this paper, we will start with a dierent approach to derive a new Dirac-type equation for tachyonic neutrinos. In order to avoid introducing imaginary mass, Eq. (3) can be rewritten as E = (c2 p2 m2 c4 )1/2 s (6)

where ms is called proper mass, for instance, ms (e ) = 1.6 eV from Eq. (1). We follow Diracs search [11], Hamiltonian must be rst order in momentum operator p : E = c( p) + s ms c2 3 (7)

 with (E = i /t, p = i ), where = (1 , 2 , 3 ) and s are 4 4 h h matrix, which are dened as i = 0 i i , 0 s = 0 I I 0 (8)

where i is 22 Pauli matrix, I is 22 unit matrix. Notice that s is a new matrix, which is dierent from the one in the traditional Dirac equation. the relation between the matrix s and the traditional matrix is as follows: s = 5 (9) where = I 0 0 I , 5 = 0 1 1 0 (9a)

When we take square for both sides in Eq.(7), and consider the following relations: i j + j i = 2ij i s + s i = 0 the relation in Eq. (3) or Eq. (6) is reproduced. Since Eq. (6) is related to Eq. (5), this means s is a right choice to describe neutrinos as superluminal particles. Denote the wave function as = (x, t) (x, t) with = 1 , 2 = 1 2 (11)
2 s = 1

(10)

From Eq. (7), the complete form of the new Dirac-type equation becomes E = c( p) + s ms c2 (7a)

2 Since s = 1 in the Eq.(7a), the new Dirac-type equation is dierent from the traditional Dirac equation in any covariant representation in terms of the matrices. We now study the spin-1/2 property of neutrino as a tachyonic Fermion. Eq. (7a), can be rewritten as a pair of two-component equations: = ic + ms c2 h i h t

 = ic ms c2 h (12) t Eq. (12) is an invariant under the space-time inversion transformation with (x x, t t) [12,13], i h (x, t) (x, t), (x, t) (x, t) (13)

It means that Eq.(12) obeys CPT theorem. From the equation (12), the continuity equation can be derived: +j =0 t and we have = + , j = c( + ) (15) (14)

where and j are the probability density and current; and are the Hermitian adjoint of and respectively. Eq.(15) can be rewritten as = 5 , j = c( 5 ) (15a)

It is easy to see that the probability density is positive denite when the components in and are positive. Considering a plane wave along the z axis for a left-handed particle ( p)/p = 1, the equations (12) yields the following solution: = cp ms c2 E (16)

We now consider a linear combination of and , 1 = ( + ), 2 1 = ( ) 2 (17)

where (x, t) and (x, t) are two-component spinor functions. In terms of and , Eq. (15) becomes = , j = c( + ) 5 (18)

In terms of Eq. (17), the equation (12) can be rewritten in the Weyl representation: = ic ms c2 h i h t = ic + ms c2 h (19) i h t In the above equations, both and are coupled via nonzero ms . In order to compare Eq. (19) with the well known two-component Weyl equation, we take a limit ms = 0, then the rst equation in Eq.(19) reduces to = c (20) t and the second equation in Eq. (19) vanishes because = for the massless limit. Eq. (20) is the two-component Weyl equation for describing neutrinos, which is related to the maximum parity violation discovered in 1956 by Lee and Yang [14,15]. They pointed out that no experiment had shown parity to be good symmetry for weak interaction. Now we see that, in terms of Eq.(19), once if neutrino has some mass, no matter how small it is, two equations are coupled together via the mass term while still respecting the maximum parity violation. 3. Remarks In this paper, we have further investigated the hypothesis that neutrinos are tachyonic fermions. A new Dirac-type equation is proposed and a tachyonic quantum theory is briey discussed, which can be used to solve the puzzle of negative mass-square of neutrinos. Notice that the matrix s in the new Dirac-type equation is not a 4 4 hermitian matrix. However, based on the above study, we now realize that the violation of hermitian property is related to the violation of parity. Though a non- hermitian Hamiltoian is not allowed for a subluminal particle, it does work for superluminal neutrinos. In the light of the above theoretical framework, the consequences derived from the new Dirac-type equation agree with all known properties of neutrinos. Therefore, we have reached a conclusion that neutrinos are tachyonic fermions with permanent helicity if the neutrino

mass-square is negative. Therefore, more accurate tritium beta decay experiments are needed to further determine the neutrino mass-square. According to special relativity [16], if there is a superluminal particle, it might travel backward in time. However, a re-interpretation rule has been introduced since the Sixties [6-8]. Another approach is to introduce a kinematic time under a non-standard form of the Lorentz transformation [17-20]. Therefore, special relativity can be extended to space-like region, and superluminal particles are allowed without causality violation. We wish to thank S.Y. Zhu and Y. Takahashi for helpful discussions

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