Energy losses of solar neutrinos and the oscillation hypothesis

Abstract

A formula for the stopping power of neutrinos interacting via the standard weak-interaction model, but incorporating the possibility of neutrino oscillations among the three flavors, is derived. The results are applied to study the solar-neutrino anomaly and it is found that the anomaly cannot be accounted for by many orders of magnitude from consideration of the energy losses of the neutrinos interacting with the solar matter, even if the oscillation hypothesis is found to be valid.