Neutrino oscillations inside ultrarelativistic matter: on the role of the Tolman VI spacetime
Abstract
While both neutrino propagation in photons and ultrarelativistic plasmas and neutrino oscillations in curved spacetimes have been studied extensively, their combination in a self-gravitating geometry appears not to have been considered previously. In this paper, we will investigate neutrino oscillations inside a static spherically symmetric spacetime, derived self-consistently from Einstein's equations, supported by ultrarelativistic matter. By relying on the geodesic motion and geometrical symmetries of the configuration, we will compute analytically the neutrino eikonal and spinoptics phase oscillations. Next, we will relate resonance phenomena to the physical interpretation of the background material inside which neutrinos travel for disentangling gravitational versus electroweak effects. We will inspect the effects of the pure gravitational and pure matter fields, and of the temperature in the neutrino oscillations; we will explain why our results are not coordinate artifacts, and we will certify our heuristic method by comparing with the asymptotic behaviours predicted by thermal field theory approaches. We will raise awareness on the relevance of the spinoptics phase shift entering the flavor conversion probability, should the neutrinos hit a curvature singularity. Theoretically, we will scrutinize the separate roles of geometrical symmetries versus physical features of the configuration, while astrophysically we will qualitatively discuss neutrino oscillations inside stars and in the Cosmic Microwave Background at different temperature and density conditions. Our research puts forward, in the context of the Tolman VI metric, an observational method for identifying naked singularities in our Universe: neutrinos would simultaneously be physically overlapped, in flavor-equilibrium and quantum-mechanically scrambled.
Versions
Related
- Neutrino Oscillations without Mass: A Re-analysis of KamLAND Data following the Dirac Equation in Curved Spacetime
- Deciphering Matter Invariants via Renormalization Group Equations for Neutrino Oscillations
- The Scalar MSW Effect: Compact analytical formulas for neutrino oscillations with large matter effects, including μ−μ and τ−τ dominant matter potentials
- Gravitational lensing effects on neutrino oscillations around a Schwarzschild black hole immersed in perfect fluid dark matter
- A General Framework for Leggett--Garg Violation in Neutrino Oscillations and Matter Effects
BibTeX
@misc{gregoris2026neutrino,
title = {{Neutrino oscillations inside ultrarelativistic matter: on the role of the Tolman VI spacetime}},
author = {Daniele Gregoris},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11319},
eprint = {2610.11319},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11319},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Neutrino oscillations inside ultrarelativistic matter: on the role of the Tolman VI spacetime
AU - Daniele Gregoris
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11319
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11319
AB - While both neutrino propagation in photons and ultrarelativistic plasmas and neutrino oscillations in curved spacetimes have been studied extensively, their combination in a self-gravitating geometry appears not to have been considered previously. In this paper, we will investigate neutrino oscillations inside a static spherically symmetric spacetime, derived self-consistently from Einstein's equations, supported by ultrarelativistic matter. By relying on the geodesic motion and geometrical symmetries of the configuration, we will compute analytically the neutrino eikonal and spinoptics phase oscillations. Next, we will relate resonance phenomena to the physical interpretation of the background material inside which neutrinos travel for disentangling gravitational versus electroweak effects. We will inspect the effects of the pure gravitational and pure matter fields, and of the temperature in the neutrino oscillations; we will explain why our results are not coordinate artifacts, and we will certify our heuristic method by comparing with the asymptotic behaviours predicted by thermal field theory approaches. We will raise awareness on the relevance of the spinoptics phase shift entering the flavor conversion probability, should the neutrinos hit a curvature singularity. Theoretically, we will scrutinize the separate roles of geometrical symmetries versus physical features of the configuration, while astrophysically we will qualitatively discuss neutrino oscillations inside stars and in the Cosmic Microwave Background at different temperature and density conditions. Our research puts forward, in the context of the Tolman VI metric, an observational method for identifying naked singularities in our Universe: neutrinos would simultaneously be physically overlapped, in flavor-equilibrium and quantum-mechanically scrambled.
ER -