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Optica Publishing Group
  • 2015 European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics - European Quantum Electronics Conference
  • (Optica Publishing Group, 2015),
  • paper EF_7_4

Optical analogue of neutrino oscillations in binary waveguide arrays

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Abstract

Waveguide arrays (WAs) allow for the optical simulation of non-relativistic dynamics of quantum particles. Further, it is possible to mimic relativistic phenomena of quantum field theory in binary waveguide arrays (BWAs), since optical propagation in the continuous limit is governed by a (1+1)D Dirac equation [1]. Spontaneous symmetry breaking induced by tachyon condensation can be simulated in amplifying plasmonic arrays [2], where optical propagation in the continuous limit is governed by a (1+1)D Dirac-like equation for particles with imaginary mass, i.e. tachyons. Another intriguing mechanism arising in particle physics is represented by neutrino oscillation, a quantum mechanical effect whereby a neutrino created with a specific lepton flavor can later be measured with a different flavor. Here we suggest an optical analogue of neutrino oscillation based on light propagation in a pair of vertically displaced BWAs with longitudinally modulated effective index. In the fast modulation limit, considering only nearest-neighbour evanescent coupling, optical propagation is governed by the effective CMEs [3], where an (bn) are the modal field amplitudes in the upper (lower) linear arrays, ma, mb are related to the alternating offsets of the two arrays, κ and ε are the averaged effective coupling constants between adjacent waveguides in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, and γ is the nonlinear coefficient. Defining the two-component spinors A = (A1 A2)T = (−1)n (a2n ia2n−1)T and B = (B1 B2)T = (−1)n (ib2n b2n−1)T, if the transversal patterns of the amplitudes A1, A2, B1, B2 are smooth, one can take the continuous limit where the spinors satisfy two coupled (1+1)D nonlinear Dirac equations for half-spin particles with two different mass eigenstates, i.e. neutrinos [3]. The linear supermodes +〉, 〉 represent the neutrino flavors and satisfy the flavor dispersion relation μ±2=κ2p2+ε2+(ma2+mb2)/2±(mbma)(ma+mb)2+4ε2/2, which is plotted in Fig. 1(a). In Fig. 1(b), we plot the dispersion of several nonlinear mode families: NL1, NL2, NL3, NL4, which ensue from the linear dispersions of neutrinos and antineutrinos, and the switching families SWA, SWB arising at higher thresholds. Note that, owing to the existence of nonlinear switching families, neutrino oscillations are quenched in the nonlinear regime (see Fig. 1(c)). Our results show that optical waveguide arrays can provide an experimentally accessible laboratory tool for the observation of unconventional effects and extreme regimes in particle physics and astrophysics that are still outside of any experimental demonstration.

© 2015 IEEE

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