Scattering of massive neutrino test fields from a gravitational pulse

Abstract

Linearized Einstein–Weyl equations are solved precisely in the context of sandwich gravitational waves. The neutrino’s energy-momentum depends on the geometry and composition of the gravitational pulse when it is scattered. Since the background remains unchanged at the test field level, the neutrino’s energy density will exhibit fluctuations between positive and negative extremes when traversing the sandwich wave. These variations could provide insights into the behavior of models concerning neutrino oscillations.