Neutrino mass and nature through its mediation in atomic clock interference

Abstract

The absolute mass of neutrinos and their nature are presently unknown. Aggregate matter has a coherent weak charge leading to a repulsive interaction mediated by a neutrino pair. Near its range at micron distances the virtual neutrinos are non-relativistic, giving a distinct behavior for Dirac versus Majorana mass terms. The magnitude and the distance dependence of the effective potential disentangle these fundamental properties of neutrinos. We propose an experiment to search for this potential based on the concept that the density dependent interaction of an atomic probe with a material source in one arm of an atomic clock interferometer generates a differential phase. The appropriate geometry of the device is selected using the saturation of the weak potential as a guide. The proposed experiment has the added benefit of being sensitive to gravity at micron distances. A strategy to suppress the competing Casimir-Polder interaction, depending on the electronic structure of the material source, as well as a way to compensate the gravitational interaction in the two arms of the interferometer is discussed.