It is even possible that neutrinos can act as their own antiparticles-that is, neutrinos could transform into antineutrinos and vice versa. This scenario, which the discovery of right -handed neutrinos would support, would make neutrinos fundamentally different from the more familiar particles such as quarks and electrons. If anti-subbsation can be transformed into neutrinos, this could help explain where the antimatter went during the first moments of the universe.
One way of testing this idea is to seek an unusual type of radioactive disintegration – theorized but so far never observed – known as “duplicate neutrinore disintegration”. In regular double beta disintegration, two neutrons in a nucleus decompose simultaneously into protons, releasing two electrons and two antineutrinos in the process. But if neutrinos can act like their own antiparticles, the two neutrinos could be mutually annoying, leaving only the two electrons and an explosion of energy.
A certain number of experiences are underway or planned to seek this decline process, including the experience of Kamland-Zen, at the detection installation of Kamioka neutrinos in Japan; Nexo experience in the installation of SNOLAB in Ontario, Canada; The next experience at the Underground Canfranc laboratory in Spain; And the legendary experience at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. Kamland-Zen, Next, and legend are already operational.
Although these experiences differ in the details, they all use the same general strategy: they use a giant VAT of dense radioactive materials with detector tables that are looking for unusually energetic electron. (The companions of neutrinos expected from the electrons would be missing, with the energy they would have rather transported by electrons.)
While neutrino remains one of the most mysterious particles, it slowly abandons but regularly abandons its secrets. In doing so, he can crack the puzzle of our universe dominated by matter – a universe that allowed curious creatures like us to flourish. The neutrinos which zips silently through your body every second gradually reveals the universe in a new light.
“I think we are entering a very exciting time,” explains Turner.
This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, a non -profit publication dedicated to making scientific knowledge accessible to all. Register for the newsletter of Knowable magazine.
