

They’re not called elementary because they’re easy to understand – they aren’t – but because they are seemingly point-like in size, and we can’t break them down into smaller constituents.

I could begin by telling you that neutrinos are elementary particles, but that sounds condescending. Ironically, these near-undetectable particles can reveal things that cannot be seen any other way. They’re worth it, and the announcement of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes that, following related prizes in 1988, 19. Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institute for Cosmic Ray Research), The University of Tokyo If the characterization of the site proves to be excellent, one could consider how a full-scale neutrino observatory might be deployed on a relatively fast timescale thanks to the existing deep-water infrastructure, a neutrino detector array operated in the Pacific would ideally complement IceCube and its second generation at South Pole.Neutrinos, we’re looking for you! Japan’s Super-Kamiokande detector. This identification launches the new field of high-energy neutrino astronomy, which we expect will yield exciting breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe and fundamental physics, including how and where these ultra-high-energy particles are produced, for 20 years, one of our dreams as a collaboration was to identify the sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, and it looks like we've finally done it ! We continue to search for counterparts to neutrino detections, to understand whether all such events come from blazars like this one, or whether there is a diversity of celestial objects can produce such highly energetic neutrinos. Whether or not the neutrino and its corresponding antineutrino are identical particles has not yet been resolved, even though the antineutrino has an opposite chirality to the neutrino.10 Each type is associated with an antiparticle, called an "antineutrino", which also has neutral electric charge and half-integer spin. There are three types, or "flavors", of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos. Neutrinos are created as a result of certain types of radioactive decay, or nuclear reactions such as those that take place in the Sun, in nuclear reactors, or when cosmic rays hit atoms. Therefore a typical neutrino passes through normal matter unimpeded. Neutrinos are affected only by the weak sub-atomic force, of much shorter range than electromagnetism, and gravity, which is relatively weak on the subatomic scale. Neutrinos do not carry electric charge, which means that they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces that act on charged particles such as electrons and protons. Their mass has never been measured accurately. All evidence suggests that neutrinos have mass but that their mass is tiny even by the standards of subatomic particles.

The neutrino is denoted by the Greek letter ν. Freebase (0.00 / 0 votes) Rate this definition:Ī neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with half-integer spin.
