Quantum Information as a New Lens for Precision Neutrino Physics

Abstract:We present a quantum-information-theoretic study of three-flavor neutrino oscillations in long-baseline experiments by mapping flavor states to qubit-like representations and quantifying quantum correlations through total concurrence. The local minima of this entanglement measure identify energy regions where the flavor state is closest to separability, enabling cleaner extraction of oscillation parameters. We explain how these local minima offer opportunities for precision measurements and provide insight into the accurate determination of neutrino oscillation parameters. We then propose a strategy to improve parameter extraction by aligning the benchmark oscillation regions of NO$\nu$A and T2K with the minimum entanglement achievable in each experiment. This shifts the concurrence minima toward higher-event-count energy regions, leading to tighter constraints and reducing the tension arising from their different energy regimes. For normal ordering, we obtain $(0.581^{+0.0136}_{-0.0150},195^{+38}_{-32}^\circ)$ in the $(\sin^2\theta_{23},\delta_{\rm CP})$ plane and $(0.580^{+0.0140}_{-0.0153},2.515^{+0.0344}_{-0.0344}\times10^{-3}\,\mathrm{eV}^2)$ in the $(\sin^2\theta_{23},\Delta m^2_{31})$ plane, yielding improved joint constraints. Using GLoBES simulations together with real data, we assess how local minima of quantum correlations influence leptonic CP-violation sensitivity, $\theta_{23}$ octant-degeneracy resolution, and mass-ordering determination. Our results show that minimizing entanglement can significantly affect these key sensitivities, highlighting quantum information measures as complementary probes of neutrino flavor oscillations and offering new insight into the role of quantum correlations in precision neutrino physics.

34 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. Comments are welcome

arXiv:2606.31996 [hep-ph]

(or arXiv:2606.31996v2 [hep-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.31996 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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