Linear stability analysis of collective neutrino oscillations without spurious modes

Understand

Collective neutrino oscillations are induced by the presence of neutrinos themselves.

• As such they are intrinsically nonlinear phenomena and are much more complex than linear counterparts such as the vacuum or MSW oscillations.
• They obey integro-differential equations, numerical solutions of which are also very challenging.
• If one focuses on the onset of the collective oscillations, on the other hand, the equations can be linearized and the technique of linear analysis can be employed.