Field Theoretic Description of High Energy Neutrino Interactions in Matter

In this paper we begin the development of a formalism for the description of high energy neutrino interactions. It is based upon field theory quantized on a null plane. We set up the general formalism as well as some techniques needed to perform phenomenological calculations. We show that the formalism developed by Wolfenstein is recovered at the cost of making two approximations: one has to treat the charged lepton fields in the Hartree–Fock approximation and one has to take the short distance limit of the Hartree–Fock correlation function. As an example, we discuss the resonant interaction of electron neutrinos in an electron gas.