Neutrino Oscillations as a Gravitational Wave Detector?

Abstract

Gravitational waves (GWs) can alter the neutrino propagation distance and thus affect neutrino oscillations. This can result in a complete disappearance of the oscillatory behavior that competes with other sources of neutrino decoherence. We develop a set of criteria that determines under which conditions neutrino oscillations are sensitive to this effect. We find that current or near future neutrino oscillation experiments are not sufficiently sensitive to coherent GW signals but may probe the stochastic gravitational wave background if the energy resolution improves drastically by several orders of magnitude.