We develop the general formalism for the study of neutrino propagation in the presence of stochastic media. This formalism allows the systematic derivation of evolution equations for averaged quantities as survival probabilities and higher order distribution moments. The formalism equally applies to any finite-dimensional Schrödinger equation in the presence of a stochastic external field. New integrodifferential equations valid for finite correlated processes are obtained for the first time. For the particular case of exponentially correlated processes a second order ordinary equation is obtained. As a consequence, the Redfield equation valid for Gaussian delta-correlated noise is rederived in a simple way: it has been obtained directly and as the zero-order term of an asymptotic expansion in the inverse of the correlation length. The formalism, together with the quantum correlation theorem is applied to the computation of higher moments and correlation functions of practical interest in forthcoming high precision neutrino experiments. It is shown that equal and unequal time correlators follow similar differential equations.

• Received 17 July 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.59.073001