Do the Kamiokande results need neutrino oscillations?

Neutrino oscillations are a delicate and important subject. One needs to be sure that every aspect of it is well understood. The recent results of the Kamiokande experiment [Evidence for oscillation of atmospheric neutrinos, The Super-Kamiokande Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 1562], indicate the possibility of τ–μ(–e?) neutrino oscillations. The period of oscillation observed by Kamiokande is not compatible with what one may deduce from the solar neutrino experiments [J. Conrad, Review talk on neutrino oscillations at ICHEP-98, 23–29 July 1998, Proc. ICHEP-98 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada]. In this letter, we examine if another mechanism could fake neutrino oscillations and could be measurement dependent.