Coherence effects in neutrino oscillations

Abstract

We study the effect of coherent and incoherent broadening on neutrino oscillations both in vacuum and in the presence of matter (the MSW effect). We show under very general assumptions that it is not possible to distinguish experimentally neutrinos produced in some region of space as wave packets from those produced in the same region of space as plane waves with the same energy distribution. \textcopyright{} 1995 The American Physical Society.