On the emergence of flavor mixing through interaction with an external vector field

Abstract

We consider the possibility that two-flavor neutrino mixing can be viewed as resulting from the interaction of two non-mixed flavor neutrinos with an external vector field. Two distinct scenarios of the origin of such a vector field are presented. First we argue that the vector field might be understood as an su(2) gauge field. In the second scenario we put forward the idea that the vector field can be identified with a Nambu-Goldstone vector field which results form a spontaneous symmetry breakdown of the Lorentz symmetry. Phenomenological implications of these pictures are briefly discussed.