This intriguing and accessible book examines the experiments on neutrino oscillations. It argues that this history gives us good reason to believe in the existence of neutrinos, a particle that interacts so weakly with matter that its interaction length is measured in light years of lead. Yet, the scientific process has provided evidence of the elusive neutrino. Written in a style accessible to any reader with a college education in physics, Are There Really Neutrinos? is of interest to students and researchers alike. This second edition contains a new epilogue highlighting the new developments in neutrino physics over the past 20 years.
This book discusses how the physics community came to know so much about the neutrino. It is designed to examine the history of the neutrino from its unsuspected beginnings in the discovery of radioactivity at the end of the nineteenth century to current experiments on the mass of the neutrino.
In this intriguing and accessible book, Allan Franklin argues that science is a reasonable enterprise that produces knowledge of the physical world based on valid experimental evidence and critical discussion. He does this by looking at the history of the neutrino, which he traces from the discovery of radioactivity to recent experiments on neutrino oscillations. He argues that this history has given us good reason to believe in the existence of the neutrino, a particle that interacts so weakly with matter that its interaction length is measured in light years of lead. If science can provide evidence for the reality of such an elusive particle then we can reasonably conclude that it provides us with knowledge.
A history of the neutrino discusses how the atomic particle was sought and found, and how it allows astronomers to perform more in-depth research about distant galaxies and stars.
An accessible and visually arresting picture book about one of the universe's most mysterious particles for the youngest scientific minds Before you finish reading this sentence, trillions upon trillions of neutrinos will have passed through your body. Not sure what a neutrino is? Get an up-close-and-personal introduction in this dazzling picture book from MIT Kids Press, told in lilting rhyme from the neutrino’s point of view and filled with mind-bending, full-bleed illustrations that swirl and splash the cosmos to life. Some of the smallest bits of matter known to exist—and they exist everywhere—neutrinos are inspiring cutting-edge and Nobel Prize–winning research. Here, playful text and watercolor illustrations blended with photographs distill the concept of these mysterious particles down to its essence. “Know Your Neutrinos” end notes provide context for each spread, amplifying the science and making complex astrophysics and physics concepts approachable. This indispensable STEM title urges children to dream of contributing their own discoveries.
The physics of neutrinos--uncharged elementary particles that are key to helping us better understand the nature of our universe--is one of the most exciting frontiers of modern science. This book provides a comprehensive overview of neutrino physics today and explores promising new avenues of inquiry that could lead to future breakthroughs. The Physics of Neutrinos begins with a concise history of the field and a tutorial on the fundamental properties of neutrinos, and goes on to discuss how the three neutrino types interchange identities as they propagate from their sources to detectors. The book shows how studies of neutrinos produced by such phenomena as cosmic rays in the atmosphere and nuclear reactions in the solar interior provide striking evidence that neutrinos have mass, and it traces our astounding progress in deciphering the baffling experimental findings involving neutrinos. The discovery of neutrino mass offers the first indication of a new kind of physics that goes beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles, and this book considers the unanticipated patterns in the masses and mixings of neutrinos in the framework of proposed new theoretical models. The Physics of Neutrinos maps out the ambitious future facilities and experiments that will advance our knowledge of neutrinos, and explains why the way forward in solving the outstanding questions in neutrino science will require the collective efforts of particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.
When Kai Zuber’s pioneering text on neutrinos was published in 2003, the author correctly predicted that the field would see tremendous growth in the immediate future. In that book, Professor Zuber provided a comprehensive self-contained examination of neutrinos, covering their research history and theory, as well as their application to particle physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and the broad reach of cosmology; but now to be truly comprehensive and accurate, the field’s seminal reference needs to be revised and expanded to include the latest research, conclusions, and implications. Revised as needed to be equal to the research of today, Neutrino Physics, Second Edition delves into neutrino cross sections, mass measurements, double beta decay, solar neutrinos, neutrinos from supernovae, and high energy neutrinos, as well as new experimental results in the context of theoretical models. It also provides entirely new discussion on: Resolution of the solar neutrino problem The first real-time measurement of solar neutrinos below 1 MeV Geoneutrinos Long baseline accelerator experiments Written to be accessible to readers from diverse backgrounds, this edition, like the first, provides both an introduction to the field as well as the information needed by those looking to make their own contribution to it. And like the first edition, it whets the researcher’s appetite, going beyond certainty to pose those questions that still need answers.
This book covers the field of neutrino physics and astrophysics, providing an up-to-date presentation of the different research topics on the frontier of the field. It starts with a historical description to understand how the different aspects of our knowledge about the neutrinos evolved up to the present state. The main required elements of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions are introduced, and the different neutrino interactions and detection techniques are presented. We introduce the various ways to give neutrinos a mass and the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations which provides the main evidence for non-vanishing neutrino masses. We then consider the neutrinos produced in the Sun, what we have learned from them, and how they can also be useful to study our star. The geoneutrinos produced by the radioactivity in the Earth are discussed and the status of their detection is presented. We survey the neutrino production in the supernova explosions at the end of the life of very massive stars, what has been observed in SN1987A, and what could be learned from a future supernova or from the observation of the diffuse supernova neutrino background. We describe in detail the neutrino production by cosmic rays interacting in the atmosphere, the evidence for their flavor oscillations, and the oscillograms to describe their flavor change in terrestrial matter. The different mechanisms of production of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos and the observations achieved with the IceCube detector are presented, also discussing their flavor content by means of the flavor triangle. We then examine the cosmological neutrino background, its impact on Big Bang nucleosynthesis and on the CMB observations, with the associated bound on their masses and effective number. Finally, we review the basics of the leptogenesis scenarios, which provide an attractive explanation for the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe.
Our Universe is made of a dozen fundamental building blocks. Among these, neutrinos are the most mysterious - but they are the second most abundant particles in the Universe. This book provides detailed discussions of how to describe neutrinos, their basic properties, and the roles they play in nature.
