We suggest an analytical approximation scheme to study the flavor quantum oscillation phenomena in a pedagogical and comprehensive way. After briefly describing the status of the theoretical study of quantum oscillations, with an introductory discussion of the results obtained with plane waves, we introduce the wave packet formalism in order to study some peculiar characteristics comprised by the quantum oscillation phenomena. By following an analytical study with Gaussian wave packets, we show that the oscillations are bounded by a time-dependent vanishing function which characterizes the slippage between the wave packets. We demonstrate that the wave packet spreading is typically a second order effect which is indeed relevant in the non-relativistic limit. In addition, we quantify an additional time-dependent phase which changes the standard oscillating character of the flavor conversion formula. Finally, we consider a Square and a Sine function to describe the particle localization and we verify how it changes the flavor oscillation probability under such circumstances.
neutrino; flavor oscillation; wave packet
