Optical simulation of neutrino oscillations in binary waveguide arrays

Abstract

We theoretically propose and investigate an optical analogue of neutrino oscillations in a pair of vertically displaced binary waveguide arrays with longitudinally modulated effective refractive index. Optical propagation is modelled through coupled-mode equations, which in the continuous limit lead to two coupled Dirac equations for fermionic particles with different mass states, i.e. neutrinos. We demonstrate that neutrino oscillations can be quenched by nonlinear effects, and we predict the existence of neutrino solitons. Incidentally, these phenomena are expected to play an important role in massive supernova stars. Our results pave the way for using binary waveguide arrays as a classical laboratory for predicting exotic effects in particle physics and astrophysics.