Neutrinos are the ninjas of the universe . They do n’t interact with other particles very often , but when they do , they obliterate them . Until now . scientist have observe a new way that neutrinos interact with the universe .
Neutrinos have , rough , the size of an negatron , but without the electric charge of an electron . This make them elusive . While negatron can be ensnared by nearby protons , or pushed away by nearby electrons , neutrino can roam through pretty much anything . Neutrinos can pass through light - years of lead without interact with a single particle .
If it seems odd that we even know neutrinos subsist , consider how many of them there are in the population . These mote are produce during the decay of radioactive fabric . Every time we place off a atomic bomb , or a atomic reactor , or when we intentionally clash atom at high speeds , we create neutrinos – but we are n’t the primary beginning of neutrino . The elementary source of neutrinos is the Big Bang . It give them their start , and they ’ve been traveling through the universe ever since . About ten trillion of them are kick the bucket through your deal right now . And now . And now .
When the neutrino do hit an atom , they deliver a impact . A neutrino striking a carbon paper core group can blast the nucleus asunder . Which make it strange that scientists have of late observed neutrinos giving the gentlest of dab to carbon speck before run peacefully on .
In 1909 , Ernest Rutherford and his associate , Ernest Marsden and Hans Geiger , were study the compactness of an molecule . Not a core , or a textile , but an atom . At the sentence , scientists believed in the “ plum tree pudding ” model of the mote . The nucleus was consider a big lump of proton goo , with electrons stay inside it . The three physicists thought that discharge alpha particles at the goo might help them rule out the national workings of the pud . Alpha particle are two protons and two neutron stuck together . Compact and intemperately , they had very eminent energy when fuel . Geiger and Marsden were meant to fire alpha mote at fragile gold foil , to see how the particles were debar . Because the foil was so thin , and the atom was meant to be so soft and yielding , nobody expected much of a change in the counsel of the alpha speck .
Much to everyone ’s surprisal , Marsden and Geiger got Brobdingnagian angles of deflection . Sometimes the alpha particles they fire into the transparency arrive zooming right back at them . The scientist realized there was something very dense and hard inside the supposed pud turning the alpha corpuscle back . Rutherford later said of the experiment , “ It was quite the most incredible event that ever happened to me in my life . It was almost as unbelievable as if you terminate a 15 - column inch racing shell at a piece of tissue paper and it come back and hit you . ”
Professor Kevin McFarland uses a similar doctrine of analogy to describe a neutrino hit a carbon nucleus . The carbon karyon is a fragile bubble , and the neutrino is a fastball . We can guess how interaction between the two should go . But sometimes something very strange happens . According to McFarland , “ The house of cards – a atomic number 6 nucleus in the experimentation – parry the neutrino ‘ slug ’ by create a particle from the vacuum . This effectively shields the house of cards from getting blare apart and instead the bullet only delivers a gentle bump to the bubble . ”
At the Fermilab , McFarland was able to corroborate that the carbon nucleus remain whole and undisturbed while appoint pions suddenly went whizzing around , block neutrinos . This interaction , by the way , need more vigor than simply obliterating a carbon karyon . So molecule physics has just been substantiate as getting a little fleck weirder .
Fermilab Top Image : Renzo Borgatti
Neutrino Observation : Argonne National Laboratory
[ ViaReanalysis of bubble chamber measuring of mu-meson - neutrino induced single pion output , Neutrino Penetration Depth , The Rutherford Scattering Experiment , The University of Rochester . ]
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