Physicists Cast Doubt on Neutrino Theory - Exotic Subatomic Particle May Not Exist at All

SciTech Daily ^ | August 13, 2020 | University of Cincinnati

[SunkenCiv]

Exotic subatomic particles, sterile neutrinos, are no-shows in experiments, increasing doubts about their existence.

University of Cincinnati physicists, as part of an international research team, are raising doubts about the existence of an exotic subatomic particle that failed to show up in twin experiments.

UC College of Arts and Sciences associate professor Alexandre Sousa and assistant professor Adam Aurisano took part in an experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in search of sterile neutrinos, a suspected fourth "flavor" of neutrino that would join the ranks of muon, tau, and electron neutrinos as elementary particles that make up the known universe.

Finding a fourth type of neutrino would be huge, Sousa said. It would redefine our understanding of elementary particles and their interactions in what's known as the Standard Model.

Researchers in two experiments called Daya Bay and MINOS+ collaborated on complementary projects in an intense effort to find sterile neutrinos using some of the world's most advanced and precise tools.

"We apparently don't see any evidence for them," Aurisano said.

The study was published in the journal Physical Review Letters and was featured in Physics Magazine, published by the American Physical Society.

"It's an important result for particle physics," Sousa said. "It provides an almost definitive answer to a question that has been lingering for over 20 years."

[SunkenCiv]

The neutrino, neutrinos, and sterile neutrino/s keywords, chrono, duplicates out:

• Dark matter hunt yields unexplained signal [2020]
• Mysterious particles spewing from Antarctica defy physics [2020]
• KATRIN cuts the mass estimate for the elusive neutrino in half [2019]
• The universe may be a billion years younger than we thought. Scientists are scrambling... [2019]
• A Neutrino Beam Beacon [2019]
• Dark Matter Scientists Observe the Rarest Event in History [2019]
• This is the slowest radioactive decay ever spotted [2019]
• Could Misbehaving Neutrinos Explain Why the Universe Exists? [2018]
• A Major Physics Experiment Just Detected a Particle That Shouldn't Exist [2018]
• Mysterious neutrino surplus hints at the existence of new particles [2018]
• "We Truly Don't Know What It Is" --Mystery Milky-Way Spectrum of Light Observed... [2018]
• LBNF/DUNE to create 2,000 jobs in SD (Also 2,000 in Illinois, physics research) [2017]
• Did Neutrinos Kill The Dinosaurs? [2016]
• Reactor Data Hint At Existence Of Fourth Neutrino [2016]
• Reactor data hint at existence of fourth neutrino [2016]
• Two physicists earn Nobel Prize for discovering neutrino's chameleon-like powers [2015]
• Kajita becomes Nobel physics prize co-winner [2015]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Distant Neutrinos Detected Below Antarctic Ice [2015]
• Scientists Confirm the Existence of Cosmic Neutrinos [2015]
• Strange Particles Shape-Shift From One Flavor to Another [2013]
• Are Neutrinos Their Own Antiparticles? [2013]
• Former APA Pres. Dr. Cummings Discusses Gay Change,Epigenetics,Neutrinos,& Political Correctness [2013]
• Einstein Avenged: Neutrinos Bow to Light Speed Laws ("E=MC2, Dammit!") [2012]
• Results From South Pole Support Einstein's Cosmological Constant [2012]
• Retest of neutrino speed suggests Einstein was right, after all [2012]
• Message Encoded in Neutrino Beam Transmitted through Solid Rock [2012]
• New Experiment Shows Neutrinos Do Not Travel Faster Than Light [2012]
• North Carolina Researchers communicate without wires through 240 meters of solid rock. [2012]
• Loose cable blamed for speedy neutrinos [2012]
• Official Word on Superluminal Neutrinos Leaves Warp-Drive Fans a Shred of Hope -- Barely [2012]
• BREAKING NEWS: Error Undoes Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Results [2012]
• Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos: OPERA Confirms and Submits Results, But Unease Remains [2011]
• Finding puts brakes on faster-than-light neutrinos [2011]
• Particles Moved Faster Than Speed of Light? [2011]
• Tiny Neutrinos May Have Broken Cosmic Speed Limit [2011]
• Particles recorded moving faster than light: CERN [2011]
• What keeps the Earth cooking? [2011]
• The world's largest neutrino telescope - made from a giant cube of ice at the South Pole [2011]
• One of the World's Biggest Telescopes Is Buried Beneath the South Pole [2010]
• Search for microscopic black hole signatures at the Large Hadron Collider [String Theory Fails] [2010]
• Physicists Discover "Violation of a Fundamental Symmetry of the Universe" [2010]
• 'Telescope' buried a mile under the Antarctic ice to find source of cosmic rays [2010]
• Roman ingots to shield particle detector [ Italian neutrino experiment ] [2010]
• Missing piece found in particle puzzle: scientists... [2010]
• Does The Earth Harbors a Huge, Natural Nuclear Reactor at its Core -New Discovery Proves "No" [2010]
• Earth's Clearest Skies Revealed [Ideal Telescope Site In Antarctica - Graphic On Comments Page] [2009]
• Particles Larger Than Galaxies Fill the Universe? [2009]
• I've Got Your Big Bang--Cat-Style [2008]
• Looking for ET's neutrino beam [2008]
• Cosmologists Probe Mystery Of Dark Energy With South Pole Telescope [2008]
• Physicists capture image of elusive neutrinos [2007]
• Sea floor records ancient Earth [2007]
• Dark matter 'proof' called into doubt [2006]
• Harlan: Welcome to the great neutrino rush of '06 [2006]
• Light shed on mysterious particle [2006]
• South Pole Detector Could Yield Signs of Extra Dimensions [2006]
• First measurements of Earth's core radioactivity [2005]
• Neutrino ripples spotted in space; Universal lumpiness is imprinted in mysterious particles [2005]
• It's The Little Things That Matter - Neutrinos [2005]
• New theory links neutrino's slight mass to accelerating universe expansion [2004]
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Dark Energy, Inflation, & Neutrino Mass News [2004]
• Europe plans lab beneath the Alps [2004]
• GLOBAL TEAM OF PHYSICISTS UPENDS STANDARD MODEL WITH DISCOVERY OF NEUTRINO OSCILLATION, MASS [2004]
• Ice Age coming into Focus! [2004]
• Neutrino beam could neutralise nuclear bombs [2004]
• New particle turns up in Japan [2003]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day 8-03-03 [2003]
• Antarctic telescope delivers first neutrino sky map [2003]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day 6-23-03 [2003]
• Florida Physicist Says Dark Matter, Extra Dimensions Related And Possibly Detectable [2003]
• Tohoku Univ. scientists find new neutrino [2002]
• Two Americans, Japanese Win Nobel Physics Prize [2002]

[SunkenCiv]

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[half remembered poem] ...the doctor gave them physic and they died but these are happier times for now we know both how to make men sick and keep them so.

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200811125036.htm

https://newatlas.com/physics/sterile-neutrino-experiments-not-found/

https://astronomy.com/news/2020/03/suspected-evidence-for-the-makeup-of-dark-matter-falls-flat

[ClearCase_guy]

A fair amount of physics is wishful thinking. We have string theory, 15 dimensions, dark matter, anti-matter, neutrinos, and the multiverse.

Most seems like “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’ve got a story I made up ...”

[Larry Lucido]

They're like molecular rat hats. The Willards of atomic organizers. Damn that Bob Sacamano!

[TexasGator]

“Most seems like “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’ve got a story I made up ...””

Not exactly ...

[MNDude]

Idiots! I could have told them this.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

They keep trying to make the math work but it doesn't until they make a part of it up.

At some point they are smacked in the face with the fact that they are wrong and they will correct all their equations and discover that the new one does not work unless you tweak this one little part and so they will do that and they cycle begins again.

Thankfully they are not in the field of construction.

[Texas Eagle]

Omygosh. Are you kidding me? You mean not even the science of exoctic subatomic particle sterile neutrinos is settled?

[thoughtomator]

When you get down to the nitty gritty there doesn’t appear to exist conclusive evidence for any particle smaller than an atom. I was as surprised as anyone when I discovered this - every subatomic particle, including electrons, is thought to exist only through mathematical speculation.

[TexasGator]

GEEZ!

[SuperLuminal]

Forget about sterile neutrinos... Siince they don't contribute to overpopulation...
I think that physicists should focus on that song by the Pointer Sisters... At least you can work with, and observe, neutrons...

[wolfman]

So many scientists trying to make a name for themselves with out there theories, trying to be a hero instead of just observing and going where the facts lead.

[thoughtomator]

Modern physics is bad Einstein fan fiction, basically. The standards and level of rigor are shockingly abysmal, given how so oh so sure they are of their conception of reality. It has genuinely become a religion in and of itself.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

No, He knows all about it.

The rest of us just make it up as we go along.

It is called the scientific process. And it is how we figure things out.

[TexasGator]

“When you get down to the nitty gritty there doesn’t appear to exist conclusive evidence for any particle smaller than an atom. I was as surprised as anyone when I discovered this - every subatomic particle, including electrons, is thought to exist only through mathematical speculation.”

Wrong

[TexasGator]

So you say.

[RandallFlagg]

Well, looks like I’m gonna have to throw all of my post 1985 Star Trek shows in the trash.

[TexasGator]

“Modern physics is bad Einstein fan fiction, basically. The standards and level of rigor are shockingly abysmal, given how so oh so sure they are of their conception of reality. It has genuinely become a religion in and of itself.”

How so?

[Steely Tom]

Physicists Cast Doubt on Neutrino Theory - Exotic Subatomic Particle May Not Exist at All

That would make the continuous energy spectrum of beta decay electrons rather difficult to explain.

It would also invalidate at least six Nobel prizes.