1104.3120 (Alex E. Bernardini)

Quantum measurement schemes related to flavor-weighted energies    [PDF]

Alex E. Bernardini

Reporting about the density matrix theory for a composite quantum system of flavor eigenstates, we introduce the idea of flavor-{\em weighted} energies. It provides us with the right correlation between the energies of flavor eigenstates and their measurement probabilities. In addition, the apparent ambiguities which follow from computing flavor-{\em averaged} energies are suppressed. The framework of the generalized theory of quantum measurement also provides some theoretical tools for computing the von-Neumann entropy correlated to flavor associated energies. It allows for relating flavor {\em weighted}({\em averaged}) energies to {\em non-selective} ({\em selective}) quantum measurement schemes. As a final issue, the connection of such flavor associated energies with the expressions for neutrino effective mass values is investigated. It is straightforwardly verified that cosmological background neutrino energy densities could be obtained from the coherent superposition of mass eigenstates. Our results show that the {\em non-selective} measurement scheme for obtaining flavor-{\em weighted} energies is consistent with the predictions from the single-particle quantum mechanics.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3120