Submitted by vibhumeh t3_11edidx in askscience
lepton flavor is conserved. Then how is it that neutrinos oscillate between the 3 flavors without breaking the law of flavor conservation?
Submitted by vibhumeh t3_11edidx in askscience
lepton flavor is conserved. Then how is it that neutrinos oscillate between the 3 flavors without breaking the law of flavor conservation?
mfb- t1_jadbv3t wrote
> lepton flavor is conserved
It's not. And you found out why not.
If you try to apply this to e.g. a muon to electron+photon decay you get absurdly small branching fractions (10^(-50) or so, theorists don't bother calculating it more precisely because it's zero for all practical purposes).