Universe Colloquium: Neutrino oscillations at GSI?

by Avraham Gal (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)

Wednesday 26 Oct 2011, 16:30 → 18:00 Europe/Berlin

seminar room (basement) (Cluster building, Garching)

Unexpected time modulation of EC decay rates, with period of about 7s, was reported in single-ion measurements of two-body decays of H-like heavy ions at GSI by monitoring the motion of the parent ion and recoil ion in the storage ring. It is conjectured that this time modulation may be related to neutrino spin precession in the static magnetic field of the storage ring, a scenario that requires a Dirac neutrino magnetic moment six times lower than the Borexino solar neutrino upper limit 0.54 x 10E(-10) Bohr magneton. It will be shown in a way not discussed before that the time modulation associated with interference between massive neutrino amplitudes, if such interference could arise, is of a period at least four orders of magnitude shorter than reported and must average to zero given the time resolution in the GSI measurements.

The talk is followed by a social gathering with wine and cheese.