Curious about neutrinos, the most elusive particles the universe has to offer? This course will explain some of what is known about the puzzle that neutrinos present to us, and how neutrinos have “weak” interactions. In the sketch above, the Greek letter "nu" has subscripts: e, for the elctron neutrino; "mu" for the muon neutrino, and "tau" for the tau neutrino. Neutrinos are members of a family of the lightest known particles, with a mass milions of times lighter than electrons. So far physicists have not yet measured the mass of any of the three neutrinos.
What else is known about neutrinos?
- they are leptons;
- they have a quantum property called spin;
- the value of the spin is 1/2
- they are neutral — not electrically charged;
- they can pass through enormous amounts of matter without stopping. Billions of neutrinos passed through you while you were reading this sentence.
Measuring the properties of neutrinos is extremely challenging. I will describe a few experiments which physicists (astro physicists) have performed in the last century, which have increased our knowledge, but also increaed the mystery surrounding neutrinos.
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