Neutrino oscillations: A relativistic example of a two-level system

Elisabetta Sassaroli
Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 and Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston,
Massachusetts 02115
Received 30 April 1998; accepted 3 March 1999
Neutrino flavor oscillations are discussed in terms of an explicit model. This model consists of two
coupled Dirac equations with three parameters: the electron neutrino mass, the muon neutrino mass,
and a coefficient which describes the possibility that the neutrino can flip flavor. The system is
diagonalized to obtain the exact eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. The system is then quantized and
the neutrino flavor wave functions are derived directly from the quantized fields. It is shown that
neutrino flavor oscillation probabilities are recovered in a quantum field theory treatment only in the
ultrarelativistic limit. 1999 American Association of Physics Teachers.

I. INTRODUCTION actly zero. Moreover neutrinos have masses in most exten-

sions of the GSW theory. It is therefore extremely important
Neutrino flavor oscillations are a relativistic example of a to investigate experimentally and theoretically neutrino
two-level system. In his Lectures on Physics, Feynman1 de- masses.
scribes many examples in which the approximation of a two- The experimental investigation of the allowed direct and
state system can be assumed. Some of his examples include inverse decay see, for example, Ref. 4 for more details
the ammonia molecule, the hydrogen molecule, a spin 1/2
particle in a magnetic field, and oscillations of strangeness in pne e ,
the neutral K meson system. e pne ,
For example, the ammonia molecule (NH3) has the form
of a pyramid with the nitrogen atom located above the plane e npe ,
of the three hydrogen atoms. Like any other, this molecule
and forbidden processes
has an infinite number of states; however in the two-level
system approximation, it is assumed that all the states remain e pne , e npe ,
fixed except for two: the nitrogen may be on one side of the
plane of the hydrogen atom or on the other. The system can can be conveniently described by introducing an electron
be described by the state vector , flavor quantum number. The electron e and its neutrino e
are assigned the value L e 1, the positron e and the an-
C 1 1 C 2 2 , 1 tineutrino e are assumed to have L e 1, while all the
where in the state 1 the nitrogen is up and in the state 2 remaining particles for example, the proton p and the neu-
the nitrogen is down. The coefficient C 1 1 is the tron n in the above reactions are assigned the value L e 0.
amplitude to be in state 1 and C 2 2 the amplitude to The electron flavor number is conserved in the allowed pro-
be in state 2. The coefficients C 1,2 are obtained by diago- cesses the total electron flavor number on the left-hand side
of the reaction is equal to the total electron flavor number on
nalizing the two coupled differential equations
the right-hand side, while the forbidden ones would violate
dC 1 this conservation law. Moreover the studies of processes
i H 11C 1 H 12C 2 , such as, for example,
dt
2 ,
dC 2
i H 21C 1 H 22C 2 , e e ,
dt
with H i j being the Hamiltonian matrix, which depends on pn ,
the particular system which is studied. Feynman solved and and the fact that processes of the type
discussed in great detail the set of equations given by Eq. 2
for the ammonia molecule case and also applied these equa- e , pne ,
tions to the ammonia maser.
are not observed experimentally lead to the introduction of
In this paper we will to consider a relativistic generaliza-
tion of the above set of two coupled differential equations to the muon flavor quantum number L 1 for muon and
the neutrino flavor oscillation case. its neutrino , L 1 is for to and , and L 0
Neutrinos are relativistic noncharged particles of spin 1/2, for all the remaining particles. The tau leptons
which are produced in weak interaction processes.2,3 In the ( , , , ) are described with the help of the tau flavor
electroweak theory of Glashow, Salam, and Weinberg number L .
GSW, neutrinos are massless and they can exist in three All the examples considered above satisfy the conserva-
different flavors: the electron, muon, and tau flavors. How- tion of both lepton numbers L e and L separately the total
ever as far as we know, there is no deep theoretical reason lepton number on the left-hand side of the reaction is equal
why neutrino masses, i.e., their rest energies, should be ex- to the total lepton number on the right-hand side. Because

869 Am. J. Phys. 67 10, October 1999 1999 American Association of Physics Teachers 869
the origin of these quantum numbers is not clear, there is the
possibility that they are only approximately conserved. If so,
then a neutrino produced in a given flavor can transform into
another flavor while propagating, as will be discussed in Sec.
II. If this is the case, the phenomenon of neutrino flavor
oscillations can arise in nature. Recent experiments strongly
suggest the evidence of neutrino oscillations.5 More specifi-
cally, neutrino flavor oscillations can be a possible explana-
tion of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly measured by three
different experiments68 of the solar neutrino deficit ob-
served by four different experiments,913 and of the evidence
of neutrino masses obtained by the liquid scintillator nuclear
detector LSND experiment.14 Neutrinos are also considered
to make a small contribution to the dark matter of the uni-
verse hot dark matter.
We point out here that the properties of neutrinos electric
charge zero, mass very small, maybe zero make their detec-
tion very difficult. A typical interaction cross section be-
tween an electron neutrino and a nucleus at 1 MeV is of the
order of 1043 1044 cm2.
In this paper we are going to study neutrino oscillations as
an example of a two-level system. The two coupled differ-
ential equations, which describe two-level systems, are valid
in the rest frame of the system investigated. However, since
neutrinos are relativistic particles of spin 1/2, it is important
to write a relativistically invariant generalization of Eq. 2.
The simplest generalization of Eq. 2 which is relativisti-
cally invariant and properly takes into account the neutrino
produced only through the weak interaction, which does not
conserve parity. Approximation ii appears to be related to
the impossibility of simultaneously maintaining Lorentz in-
variance and obtaining standard neutrino oscillation prob-
abilities in a way which is consistent with relativistic field
theory. This problem is obviously a deep one and is associ-
ated with the possibility that neutrinos violate Lorentz invari-
ance as well as the equivalence principle as discussed in
Refs. 1517.
II. NEUTRINO OSCILLATIONS: STANDARD
TREATMENT
We will first review the standard quantum mechanical
treatment of neutrino flavor oscillations. Suppose for ex-
ample that a muon neutrino is produced in the reaction
,
and while it is propagating has a probability of flipping its
flavor and becoming an electron neutrino, in the same way as
it is possible for the nitrogen atom in the ammonia molecule
to push its way through the three hydrogen atoms and flip to
the other side, due to a quantum tunneling effect.
The system can be described by a state vector as a
linear combination of the flavor eigenstates e and ,
C e e C , 3

spin is a system of two coupled Dirac equations with three
parameters: the electron neutrino mass, the muon neutrino Ce
, 4
mass, and a coefficient which describes the possibility that C
the neutrino can flip its flavor, as will be discussed in Sec.
with C e e , C , and
III. For simplicity we are only investigating a two-flavor
model. The system is diagonalized and the energy eigenval- C e 2 C 2 1. 5
ues and eigenfunctions are obtained. These solutions repre-
sent an interesting new piece of relativistic quantum mechan- C e and C then become the amplitudes for detecting an elec-
ics. Contrary to the nonrelativistic case where the tron neutrino and a muon neutrino, respectively. In analogy,
diagonalization of the two coupled equations above gives in the neutral K meson system the oscillations occur between
directly the probability amplitudes for flipping from one state states of different strangeness K 0 (S1) and K 0 (S
to the other, in a relativistic system, in order to deal properly 1).
with the states of negative energies we have to abandon the To derive the time evolution of the coefficients C e (t) and
one-particle picture and adopt a many-particle formulation, C (t), the state vector is written as a superposition of the
e.g., quantum field theory. energy mass eigenstates I and II ,
The solutions of the two-coupled Dirac equations are
quantized according to the usual JordanWigner anticommu- C I 1 C II 2 , 6
tation relations and the neutrino energy wave functions are
obtained as matrix elements of the quantized Dirac fields, as
described in Sec. IV. These wave functions describe neutri-

CI
C II
, 7

nos of given energy and in a state of mixed flavor at any with C 1 I , C 2 II , and
spacetime point. It is also shown that their sum describes
neutrinos in a state of mixed flavor. Therefore it is not pos- C I 2 C II 2 1, 8
sible with Dirac fields to impose the boundary condition to where C I and C II are the amplitudes for finding the neutrino
have a given flavor for all the space points at a given time, in the energy states E 1 and E 2 , respectively. These coeffi-
lets say at production. Hence, Dirac fields cannot properly cients evolve in time as
describe neutrino oscillations, where it is assumed that the
neutrino is produced in a state of given flavor and then sub- C I t C I 0 e iE 1 t , C II t C II 0 e iE 2 t . 9
sequently oscillates in flavor. Neutrino oscillation probabili-
Introducing the rotation matrix between flavor and mass
ties can be recovered only if the following two approxima-
eigenstates
tions are made on the neutrino flavor wave function: i the
left-handed chiral component of the flavor wave function is
considered as an observable wave function; ii the ultrarela-
tivistic approximation is assumed for the spinor component

I
II

cos
sin
sin
cos
e

, 10

of the wave function. it is easy to see that the following relation between the en-
Approximation i is due to the fact that neutrinos are ergy and flavor amplitudes holds:

870 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 67, No. 10, October 1999 Elisabetta Sassaroli 870

C I t
C II t

cos
sin
sin
cos
C e t
C t
. 11
free neutrino can be described by the Dirac equation for a
review about the Dirac equation and its solutions see, for
example, Ref. 22
Hence, the time evolution of the coefficients C e and C is x,t
given by i p m x,t , 21
t

C e t
C t

cos
sin
sin
cos
C I 0 e iE 1 t

C II 0 e iE 2 t
. 12 with p i and and are the Dirac matrices.
If the muon neutrino does not undergo any flavor change,
In Eq. 12 the boundary condition must be imposed that then it will move as a free particle according to Eq. 21. In
we have only a given flavor at production. Suppose for ex- the same way, if a neutrino is produced as an electron neu-
trino and has a small mass, but it does not oscillate in flavor,
ample that at t0 a muon neutrino is produced, i.e.,
its propagation in vacuum will be described by
C 0 1, C e 0 0. 13 e x,t
i p m e e x,t . 22
From Eq. 11 at t0 we obtain t
C 1 0 sin , C 2 0 cos . 14 Now suppose that, due to a quantum tunneling effect, the
muon neutrino has some probability of flipping its flavor and
The time evolution of the flavor amplitudes is obtained by turning into an electron neutrino. If is the parameter that
substituting Eq. 14 into Eq. 12, describes the flavor flipping possibility, then neutrino flavor
C e t sin cos e iE 2 t e iE 1 t , 15 oscillations can be described by the two coupled Dirac equa-
tions
iE 1 t iE 2 t
C t sin e
2
cos e2
. 16
e x,t
Space and therefore momentum is introduced by assuming i p m e e x,t x,t , 23
t
in Eqs. 15 and 16
x,t
E 21 m 21 p 2 , E 22 m 22 p 2 , Lt. 17 i p m x,t e x,t . 24
t
The probability of finding a given flavor is obtained by
squaring Eqs. 18 and 19, We notice here that has the dimension of a mass. The
details of the diagonalization of the system of equations are
C e 2 sin2 2 sin2 E 2 E 1 t/2 given in the Appendix; here we simply discuss the solutions.

For a given momentum p p the energy eigenvalues are
m 21 m 22 L
sin 2 sin
2 2
, 18 E 1,2 p 2 m 1,2
2
, 25
4E
C 2 1sin2 2 sin2 E 2 E 1 t/2 where m 1,2 are the renormalized masses

1sin 2 sin
2 2
m 21 m 22 L
4E
, 19
m 1,2 21 m e m R , R m m e 2 4 2 .

A system of two coupled Dirac equations possesses for a

26

with Ep. In order to compare with experimental data, the given value of the energy two eigenfunctions; one with spin
probabilities given by Eqs. 18 and 19 have to be averaged up and one with spin down. If 1 (x,t) is the eigenfunction
over the energy distribution of particles involved. For a more corresponding to the positive energy solution E 1 given by
complete analysis of the phenomenology of neutrino flavor Eq. 25, it is possible to show that it can be written in terms

oscillations see, for example, Ref. 3. of a two-dimensional vector
The assumption that the muon neutrino is created with a
definite momentum p is only an approximation, as has been 1
pointed out previously.1821 It is in contradiction with four-
momentum conservation, for example for the reaction
1 2 m m e R
Z 1 , 27
. Each of the possible energy eigenstates has a some- 2
what different momentum pi . In the rest frame of the pion, 1 2
energy conservation dictates that (i1,2)
times the solution of the Dirac equation of renormalized
M M 2 p2i m 2i p2i . 20 mass m 1 , momentum p, and energy E 1 ,

1 1
III. DIAGONALIZATION OF THE TWO COUPLED 1 x,t Z 1 u 1 s,p e ipx e iE 1 t , 28
DIRAC EQUATIONS V 2E 1
In this section we will derive a relativistic generalization where s1,2 is the spin index, u 1 (s,p) is the Dirac spinor of
of the two coupled equations, given by Eq. 2, in the context mass m 1 .
of the Dirac theory. The system of equations is diagonalized The wave function 1 (x,t) has eight dimensions because
and the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are derived. the two-dimensional vector Z 1 multiplies a four-dimensional
Suppose, for example, that a muon neutrino is produced wave function. This last wave function describes a neutrino
with some small mass rest energy. The propagation of the of given energy E 1 and spin 1/2. The vector Z 1 tells us that

871 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 67, No. 10, October 1999 Elisabetta Sassaroli 871
in any location inside the volume V there is a probability The wave function associated with the one-particle state
equal to (1/1 2 ) of finding the neutrino in the electron 1 ps is, for example, obtained as a matrix element of neu-
flavor and probability equal to ( 2 /1 2 ) of finding it in trino fields between the vacuum state and the one-particle
the muon flavor. Therefore 1 describes a neutrino of a state,

given energy, but of mixed flavor at any spacetime point.
In the same way, the wave function corresponding to the e x,t 0 e x,t 1 ps
x,t . 35
other positive energy solution E 2 is x,t 0 x,t 1 ps
1 1 It is easy to see that the above wave function is the energy
2 x,t Z 2 u 2 s,p e ipx e iE 2 t , 29 eigenfunction of energy E 1 defined in Eq. 30. Similar con-
V 2E 2 siderations can be applied to the other states 2 ps , 1 ps ,

where Z 2 is the vector and 2 ps . These one-particle states represent states of
mixed flavor at any given spacetime point.
When describing neutrino oscillations, we have to con-
1 2 sider a superposition of energy states. A general state of
Z 2 30 positive charge, momentum p, and spin s is given by
1
Ab 1 s,p Bb 2 s,p 0 , 36
1 2
where A and B satisfy the normalization condition
and u 2 (s,p) is the Dirac spinor of renormalized mass m 2 .
The wave function 2 describes a neutrino of given en- A 2 B 2 1. 37
ergy E 2 and mixed flavor at any spacetime point.
The solutions of negative energies are interpreted, as in The matrix element
the Dirac theory, as antiparticles of positive energy and are
given by 0 e x,t e x,t

1,2 x,t Z 1,2

1
V 2E 1,2
1
v 1,2 s,p e ipx e iE 1 t , 31
1
V 1
1
2 A
u 1 s,p
2E 1
e iE 1 t

where v 1,2(s,p) are Dirac spinors of mass m 1 and m 2 , re-

spectively. B
u 2 s,p
2E 2
e iE 2 t e ipx , 38

gives the probability amplitude of finding a neutrino of mo-

mentum p and spin s at the spacetime point (x,t) with the
IV. FIELD QUANTIZATION, ANTICOMMUTATION electron flavor. In the same way, the matrix element
RELATIONS, AND FLAVOR WAVE FUNCTIONS
0 x,t x,t

The quantization procedure for the two coupled Dirac neu-
trino fields e and , defined by Eqs. 23 and 24, pro- 1 1 u 1 s,p
ceeds in the same way as for the case of Dirac theory. For a A e iE 1 t
discussion of the quantization of the Dirac theory, see, for V 1 2 2E 1
example, Ref. 22.
We expand the neutrino field in terms of the energy
eigenfunctions and found in Sec. III,
B
u 2 s,p
2E 2
e iE 2 t e ipx , 39

x,t e x,t
x,t
is the probability amplitude for the muon flavor.
The coefficients A and B are determined through the initial
boundary conditions. Suppose that at t0,

p s i b i s,p i x,t d i i x,t , 32 x,t0 0, 40

i.e., we have only the electron flavor present. The other
where the operators b i and d i (i1,2) satisfy the usual boundary condition is obtained from the normalization con-
JordanWigner anticommutation relations dition
b i s,p ,b j s ,p i j pp ss ,
d i s,p ,d j s ,p i j pp ss .
33 V
d 3 x e x,t0 2 1. 41

For a given value of the momentum p and spin s, there are However, the above boundary conditions cannot be ap-
four possible one-particle states, one for each energy value, plied in a consistent way to the flavor wave functions given
given by Eq. 25 by Eqs. 38 and 39 and at the same time satisfy the con-
servation of probability condition given by Eq. 37. The
b 1 s,p 0 1 ps , b 2 s,p 0 2 ps , following two approximations have to be made on the neu-
34 trino wave functions in order for us to be able to impose the
d 1 s,p 0 1 ps , d 2 s,p 0 2 ps . boundary conditions given by Eqs. 40 and 41.

872 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 67, No. 10, October 1999 Elisabetta Sassaroli 872
 a The left-handed chiral components of the flavor wave We believe that there are deep theoretical reasons for the
functions are considered as observable wave functions. impossibility of discussing in a consistent way flavor oscil-
Mathematically this is equivalent to considering as observ- lations in field theory. In the literature, some hypotheses
able wave functions23 have been proposed in relation to this issue, especially in
relation to the problem of CPT and Lorentz violations. For
eL x,t 1 5 e x,t , L x,t 1 5 x,t , example, Coleman and Glashow have examined the assump-
42 tion that Lorentz noninvariance leads to neutrino oscillations
where e (x,t) and (x,t) are given by Eqs. 38 and 39 which are phenomenologically equivalent to those obtained
and 5 is defined by by assuming that neutrinos violate the equivalence principle.

A variety of different approaches have been considered in
0 1 the literature to address the problem of CPT and Lorentz
5 . 43 invariance violations, as discussed in Ref. 26.
1 0
b The ultrarelativistic approximation, i.e., E p, is as- V. CONCLUSIONS
sumed in the spinor left-handed chiral components u L (s,p)
of the flavor wave functions. We have investigated an explicit model of neutrino flavor
By applying the approximations a and b one obtains oscillations in the framework of relativistic quantum me-
the flavor neutrino wave functions chanics and quantum field theory. This model, which is a
relativistically invariant generalization of a two-level system,

eL x,t
e ipx1
V 1 &
2
1 iE t
e 1 2 e iE 2
2
2
, consists of two coupled Dirac equations. The system has
been diagonalized and second quantized in order to deal
properly with the states of negative energy. The neutrino
44 wave functions are obtained as matrix elements of the quan-

tized neutrino fields. These wave functions, however, de-

e ipx 1 iE t iE t 2 scribe neutrinos which are in a state of mixed flavor at any
L x,t e 1 e 2 .
V 1 &
2 2 spacetime point and only in the so-called ultrarelativistic
45 limit do they describe the possibility of having a given flavor
at production.
The probability densities of finding the electron and muon
neutrino flavor are then given, respectively, by
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1
e t 1
V
2
1 2
2
sin2
E 2 E 1 t
2 , 46 This work is supported in part by funds provided by the
U.S. Department of Energy D.O.E. under cooperative re-

1 2 2
E 2 E 1 t
t sin2 . 47
V 1 2 2 his constructive criticism which led to a revision of the pa-
The coefficient 2/(1 2 ) 2 is equivalent to sin2(2) in
Eqs. 18 and 19. Therefore Eqs. 46 and 47 are equiva-
lent to the standard neutrino oscillation probabilities.
It is important to discuss the meaning of both approxima-
tions. Approximation a takes into account the fact that neu-
trinos are produced through the weak interaction, which does
not conserve parity. Therefore neutrinos are created with
negative helicity and antineutrinos with positive helicity, i.e.,
neutrinos are emitted with their spin polarized opposite to
their direction of motion and antineutrinos have their spin
polarized in the same direction. This statement is exactly true
on the hypothesis that neutrinos are massless and it is cer-
tainly a very good approximation for very small neutrino
masses.
Approximation b is related to the conservation of prob-
ability. The coefficients A and B, obtained by imposing the
search agreement No. DF-FC02-94ER40818.
The author would like to thank Professor Alan H. Guth for
per. She would also like to acknowledge fruitful discussions
with Professor Kenneth Johnson and the MIT atomic and
molecular interferometry group.
APPENDIX
In order to determine the energy eigenvalues and eigen-
functions of the system of equations 23 and 24 we con-
sider the ansatz
e ae i Px , A1
be i Px
, A2
where P is the four-momentum P(E,p), which is un-
known and is to be determined so that the system of differ-
ential equations 23 and 24 is satisfied. The coefficients a
and b are Dirac spinors, which can be written as

boundary conditions given by Eqs. 40 and 41 in the flavor
1
wave functions eL (z,t), L (z,t), do not satisfy the nor- a , A3
malization condition given by Eq. 37. This condition is 2
satisfied only if we assume that the terms of type p/(E
m) in spinors u L are of order one, i.e., in the ultrarelativ-
istic limit. Therefore only in the ultrarelativistic limit can we
b
3
4
, A4

impose the condition of a given flavor at production without where 1,2 and 3,4 are two component spinors. Substituting
violating the condition that the sum of the probabilities must Eqs. A1 and A2 into Eqs. 23 and 24, we obtain the
be one. system of linear homogeneous equations
Other authors,24,25 by using different approaches, have E 1 p 2 m e 1 3 ,
also found that the standard neutrino oscillations can be re-
covered only in the ultrarelativistic limit. E 2 p 1 m e 2 4 , A5

873 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 67, No. 10, October 1999 Elisabetta Sassaroli 873
 E 3 p 4 m 3 1 ,
E 4 p 3 m 4 2 ,
where are the Pauli matrices.
A6 u 2 s,p E 2 m 2 p
s

E 2 m 2
s
. A17

The system of Eqs. A5 and A6 admits nontrivial solu- is defined as

tions only if m m e R
. A18
E 4 E 2 2p 2 2 2 m 2e m 2 p 4 2
4 p 2 2 2 m 2e m 2 m 2 m 2e 2 2 m e m 0. We notice here that because 1 we can write
2 (s,p) in terms of as
A7
Solving Eq. A7, we obtain (p p ) 2 s,p
1
1
2
u 2 s,p
u 2 s,p
. A19
E 1,2 p 2
m 1,2
2
, A8
Similarly, for the solutions of negative energies E 1 we
with m 1,2 given by have the eigenfunction:
m 1,2 21 m e m R , A9 1 1
1 x,t 3 s,p e ipx e iE 1 t , A20
and V 2E 1
R m m e 2 4 2 . A10 with 3 (s,p) given by
Therefore, while in the free Dirac equation there are two
energies one positive and one negative for every possible
value of the momentum p, for a system of two coupled Dirac
3 s,p
1
1 2
v 1 s,p
v 1 s,p

equations, there are four possible values of the energy, two
positive and two negative. This is due to the possibility of 1 v 1 s,p
, A21
flavor oscillations. Also, because there is some chance that 1 2 v 1 s,p
the neutrino can flip flavor, the rest energies of the electron
and

and muon neutrino system are not simply m e and m but are
given by Eq. A9. p
s
v 1 s,p E 1 m 1
Corresponding to the positive energy solution E 1 E 1 m 1 . A22
m 21 p 2 , we have the following two solutions: s
1 1 For the energy eigenvalue E 2 we have the solution
1 x,t 1 s,p e ipx e iE 1 t , A11
V 2E 1 1 1
2 x,t 4 s,p e ipx e iE 2 t , A23
where s1,2 is the spin index and 1 (s,p) is given by V 2E 2

1 s,p
1
u 1 s,p
, A12
with 4 (s,p) given by
1

2 u 1 s,p
1 v 2 s,p
4 s,p , A24
and u 1 (s,p) is the Dirac spinor 1 2 v 2 s,p

u 1 s,p E 1 m 1 p
s

E 1 m 1
s
, A13
and

v 2 s,p E 2 m 1 p
E 2 m 2
s

. A25
with s
m m e R 1
R. P. Feynman, R. B. Leighton, and M. Sands, The Feynman Lectures in
. A14
2 2
Physics AddisonWesley, Reading, MA, 1965, Vol. III.
For a review of neutrino physics, see for example: S. M. Bilenky and B.
For the other positive energy solution E 2 p 2 m 22 , we Pontecorvo, Phys. Rep., Phys. Lett. 41C, 225 1978; F. Boehm and P.
Vogel, Physics of Massive Neutrinos Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, En-
have
gland, 1987; B. Kayser, F. Gibrat-Debu, and F. Perrier, The Physics of
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1 1 Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1989;
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V 2E 2 R. N. Mohapatra and P. B. Pal, Massive Neutrinos in Physics and Astro-
physics World Scientific, Singapore, 1991.
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3

wood, Chur, 1993.

D. H. Perkins, Introduction to High-Energy Physics AddisonWesley,

4
1 u 2 s,p
2 s,p , A16 Reading, MA, 1982.
1 2 u 2 s,p 5
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ADJUSTING THE SPECTROMETER

I sometimes regret that much of our modern apparatus, even for students, has all the interesting
difficulties removed beforehand. If a student is going to work with a spectrometer, I think it is
highly desirable that he should go through the process of adjusting the collimator, the telescope,
and eye piece himself. It is desirable that he shall go through the process of getting the grating
lines parallel with the axis of rotation. It is desirable that he shall know how to set the axis of the
telescope perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Once the spectrometer is adjusted, all of the good
of the experiment has been utilized. I do not think that the student learns much in the last act of
measuring the wavelength of light.

W. F. G. Swann, The Teaching of Physics, Am. J. Phys. 193, 182187 1951.

875 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 67, No. 10, October 1999 Elisabetta Sassaroli 875