Sum rules and asymptotic behaviors of neutrino mixing in dense matter

Abstract

It has proved convenient to define the effective lepton flavor mixing matrix $\widetilde{U}$ and neutrino mass-squared differences $\widetilde{\Delta}^{}_{ji} \equiv \widetilde{m}^2_j - \widetilde{m}^2_i$ (for $i,j =1,2,3$) to describe the phenomena of neutrino mixing and flavor oscillations in a medium, but the prerequisite is to establish direct and transparent relations between these effective quantities and their fundamental counterparts in vacuum. With the help of two sets of sum rules for $\widetilde{U}$ and $\widetilde{\Delta}^{}_{ji}$, we derive new and exact formulas for moduli of the nine elements of $\widetilde{U}$ and the sides of its three Dirac unitarity triangles in the complex plane. The asymptotic behaviors of $|\widetilde{U}^{}_{\alpha i}|^2$ and $\widetilde{\Delta}^{}_{ji}$ (for $\alpha = e, \mu, \tau$ and $i,j =1,2,3$) in very dense matter (namely, allowing the matter parameter $A = 2\sqrt{2} ~ G^{}_{\rm F} N^{}_e E$ to mathematically approach infinity) are analytically unraveled for the first time, and in this connection the confusion associated with the parameter redundancy of $\widetilde{\theta}^{}_{12}$, $\widetilde{\theta}^{}_{13}$, $\widetilde{\theta}^{}_{23}$ and $\widetilde{\delta}$ in the standard parametrization of $\widetilde{U}$ is clarified.