Evidence for two neutrino mass eigenstates from SN 1987A and the possibility of superluminal neutrinos

摘要

This paper reports a new phenomenological analysis of the neutrino burstdetected from SN 1987 A, and it reveals the presence of two mass eigenstates.The heavier mass eigenstate has $m_H=21.4 \pm 1.2 eV/c^2$, while the lighterone has $m_L=4.0 \pm0.5 eV/c^2 $. It is not the first paper to make such aclaim, but it expands on a 1988 conditional analysis by Cowsik, and it attemptsto make the evidence more robust through an improved statistical analysis, andthrough providing reasons why alternative explanations are unlikely. It alsoshows how the result can be made consistent with existing smaller electronneutrino mass limits with the existence of a third tachyonic (superluminal)mass eigenstate.