Majorana neutrinos and magnetic fields

Abstract

It is stressed that if neutrinos are massive they are probably of "Majorana" type. This implies that their magnetic-moment form factor vanishes identically so that the previously discussed phenomenon of spin rotation in a magnetic field would not appear to take place. We point out that Majorana neutrinos can, however, have transition moments. This enables an inhomogeneous magnetic field to rotate both spin and "flavor" of a neutrino. In this case the spin rotation changes particle to antiparticle. The spin-flavor-rotation effect is worked out in detail. We also discuss the parametrization and calculation of the electromagnetic form factors of Majorana neutrinos. Our discussion takes into account the somewhat unusual quantum theory of massive Majorana particles.