Neutrino Oscillations as a Probe of Macrorealism

Bibliographic Details
Title: Neutrino Oscillations as a Probe of Macrorealism
Authors: Groth, Kathrine Mørch, Ioannou-Nikolaides, Johann, Koskinen, D. Jason, Ahlers, Markus
Publication Year: 2025
Collection: Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Quantum Physics
Subject Terms: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Quantum Physics
More Details: The correlations between successive measurements of a quantum system can violate a family of Leggett-Garg Inequalities (LGIs) that are analogous to the violation of Bell's inequalities of measurements performed on spatially separated quantum systems. These LGIs follow from a macrorealistic point of view, imposing that a classical system is at all times in a definite state and that a measurement can, at least in principle, leave this state undisturbed. Violations of LGIs can be probed by neutrino flavour oscillations if the correlators of consecutive flavour measurements are approximately stationary. We discuss here several improvements of the methodology used in previous analyses based on accelerator and reactor neutrino data. We argue that the strong claims of LGI violations made in previous studies are based on an unsuitable modelling of macrorealistic systems in statistical hypothesis tests. We illustrate our improved methodology via the example of the MINOS muon-neutrino survival data, where we find revised statistical evidence for violations of LGIs at the $(2-3)\sigma$ level, depending on macrorealistic background models.
Comment: 8 + 3 pages, 3 figures
Document Type: Working Paper
Access URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2504.05375
Accession Number: edsarx.2504.05375
Database: arXiv
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