Table of Contents
What is special about neutrino?
A neutrino is a subatomic particle that is very similar to an electron, but has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe. Because they have very little interaction with matter, however, they are incredibly difficult to detect.
Why is neutrino mass important?
Neutrino mass is also of cosmic importance. Despite their minuscule mass, so many neutrinos were born during the Big Bang that their collective gravity influenced how all the matter in the universe clumped together into stars and galaxies.
Why do neutrinos change flavors?
The flavor of a neutrino is determined as a superposition of the mass eigenstates. The type of the flavor oscillates, because the phase of the wave changes (see the right figure). This phenomenon is called neutrino oscillation. This is because the muon neutrinos passing through the earth turn into tau neutrinos.
How are neutrinos detected?
A neutrino is able to react with an atom of gallium-71, converting it into an atom of the unstable isotope germanium-71. The germanium was then chemically extracted and concentrated. Neutrinos were thus detected by measuring the radioactive decay of germanium.
What is neutrino hypothesis what is the need and significance of this hypothesis?
The neutrino was postulated first by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to explain how beta decay could conserve energy, momentum, and angular momentum (spin).
Who first proposed the existence of neutrinos?
Sixty years later, scientists are confronted with more neutrino mysteries than ever before. In 1930, Wolfgang Pauli proposed the existence of a new tiny particle with no electric charge.
Do neutrinos have wavelength?
The wavelength of a neutrino can be anything from tiny fractions of a metre to several metres. Short wavelengths correspond to high momentum neutrinos.
What are neutrinos and why are they important?
Neutrinos are important because they don’t react with other particles. This allows astronomers the ability to study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation using neutrinos. They are also using neutrinos to study the inside solar reactions of the sun.
Do neutrinos interact with matter?
Yet they rarely interact with matter or anything else. Neutrinos are important because they don’t react with other particles. This allows astronomers the ability to study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation using neutrinos. They are also using neutrinos to study the inside solar reactions of the sun.
What is the mass of a neutrino?
Particle physicists originally believed that neutrinos were massless. But in the 1990s, a team of Japanese scientists discovered that they actually have a smidgen of mass. This tiny bit of mass may explain why the universe is made up of matter, not antimatter.
Who coined the term ‘neutrino’?
It was Enrico Fermi who developed a more complete theory of neutrino interactions and who coined the term neutrino for these particles.