Astrophysics (Index) | About |
Quantum mixing (or particle mixing) is a quantum-mechanical phenomena in which one elementary particle changes into another, in a weak interaction. I suspect it is considered different than decaying if the changes form a loop, i.e., eventually, it returns back to the same particle, and has no (or minimal) interaction with its surroundings, a type of oscillation. Quarks are considered to undergo this phenomena (CKM mixing). A mixing of leptons is behind neutrino oscillation and the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect (MSW effect) is a phenomenon that affects this oscillation, which applies to energetic solar neutrinos. In supersymmetric models, neutralinos are the result of quantum mixing; in this case, the "loop" is treated as a single type of particle.