Non-relativistic neutrinos and the weak equivalence principle apparent violation

Abstract

We study the non-relativistic limit of Dirac equation for mixed neutrinos. We demonstrate that such a procedure inevitably leads to a redefinition of the inertial mass. This happens because, in contrast to the case when mixing is absent, the antiparticle sector contribution cannot be neglected for neutrinos with definite flavor. We then show that, when a gravitational interaction is switched on, in the weak-field approximation the mass parameter which couples to gravity (gravitational mass) does not undergo the same reformulation as the inertial mass, thus leading to an apparent breakdown of the weak equivalence principle.