Entropic uncertainty relation in neutrino oscillations

Abstract Neutrino oscillation is deemed as an interesting physical phenomenon and shows the nonclassical features made apparently by the Leggett–Garg inequality. The uncertainty principle is one of the fundamental features that distinguishes the quantum world to its classical counterpart. And the principle can be depicted in terms of entropy, which forms the so-called entropic uncertainty relations (EUR). In this work, the entropic uncertainty relations that are relevant to the neutrino-flavor states are investigated by comparing the experimental observation of neutrino oscillations to predictions. From two different neutrino sources, we analyze ensembles of reactor and accelerator neutrinos for different energies, including measurements performed by the Daya Bay collaboration using detectors at 0.5 and 1.6 km from their source, and by the MINOS collaboration using a detector with a 735km distance to the neutrino source. It is found that the entropy-based uncertainty conditions strengths exhibits non-monotonic evolutions as the energy increases. We also quantify the systemic quantumness measured by quantum correlation, and derive the intrinsic relationship between quantum correlation and EUR. Furthermore, we utilize EUR as a criterion to detect entanglement of neutrino-flavor state. Our results could illustrate the potential applications of neutrino oscillations on quantum information processing in the weak-interaction processes.