A Phenomenological Framework for Neutrino-Induced Molecular Excitation: The NIAR Hypothesis

Neutrinos interact with matter predominantly through the weak interaction, yet established neutrino–matter phenomena demonstrate that measurable effects can arise under appropriate physical conditions. This paper examines whether a neutrino-induced excitation of specific molecular degrees of freedom can be represented within a consistent phenomenological framework. We introduce the Neutrino-Induced Androsterone Resonance (NIAR) hypothesis as a case study, using androsterone as a representative molecular target. A phenomenological effective interaction is formulated to connect the neutrino and molecular sectors, and the resulting transition amplitude and rate are developed using first-order time-dependent perturbation theory and Fermi's Golden Rule. Energy conservation is then used to define the relevant resonance condition in terms of the energy transferred from the neutrino to the molecular system rather than the total incident neutrino energy. The framework is further extended to an effective transition cross section, neutrino-flux-dependent rate, thermal molecular populations, environmental broadening, and parameter dependence. NIAR is presented strictly as a hypothesis rather than an experimentally established phenomenon. The effective coupling remains unknown, and quantitative evaluation of the molecular transition matrix elements would require dedicated molecular calculations and experimental characterization. The principal contribution of this work is therefore a structured phenomenological framework that identifies the assumptions, parameters, and experimental conditions required to evaluate the proposed mechanism.