When a steady neutrino state becomes unstable
Neutrinos can change between different types, or “flavours”, as they travel. In dense environments, their interactions with one another and with surrounding matter can sustain a steady pattern of flavour mixing. But a pattern that survives a disturbance applied everywhere at once may still be vulnerable to a disturbance that varies across space.
This paper gives a precise example of that distinction. In a simplified model with two neutrino flavours, one steady state withstands disturbances with sufficiently long wavelengths, yet a disturbance at a particular shorter wavelength grows. The calculation includes a continuous range of directions of travel, rather than checking only a grid of directions. Such wavelength-dependent instabilities are already known; the contribution here is a verified example for a steadily replenished state with flavour coherence. The result shows why checking uniform or very long disturbances alone cannot establish stability. It does not predict what happens in a supernova or neutron-star merger: the model keeps its replenishing surroundings fixed and leaves out several physical effects. The calculation also does not identify the exact wavelength where instability begins, or the state that would eventually replace the unstable one.
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“Long-wavelength stability and finite-wavelength instability of a coherent neutrino equilibrium.” Version 1.0.0, 2026-11-06. Preprint. Published by Colin O'Callaghan. https://colinocallaghan.com/autonomous-ai-research/neutrino-stability/
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