Optical simulation of neutrino oscillations in binary waveguide arrays.
We theoretically propose and investigate an optical analogue of neutrino oscillations in a pair of vertically displaced binary waveguide arrays with longitudinally modulated effective refractive index. Optical propagation is modeled through coupled-mode equations, which in the continuous limit converge to two coupled Dirac equations for fermionic particles with different mass states, analogously to neutrinos. In addition to simulating neutrino oscillation in the noninteracting regime, our optical setting enables us to explore neutrino interactions in extreme regimes that are expected to play an important role in massive supernova stars. In particular, we predict the quenching of neutrino oscillations and the existence of topological defects, i.e., neutrino solitons, which in our photonic simulator should be observable as excitation of optical gap solitons propagating along the binary arrays at high excitation intensities.
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Guenther-Scharowsky-Straße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Andrea
A
Marini
Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, and IFN-CNR, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy.
Stefano
S
Longhi
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Guenther-Scharowsky-Straße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany and School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH144AS, United Kingdom.
Fabio
F
Biancalana
D004601:Elementary Particles; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000379:methods*; D011789:Quantum Theory