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Physicists Discover "Violation of a Fundamental Symmetry of the Universe"
i09.com ^ | November 3, 2010 | Staff

Posted on 11/04/2010 12:31:54 PM PDT by lbryce

Today physicists announced that they may have found the key to explaining dark matter in the universe. It all has to do with the potential discovery of a "sterile neutrino."

According to a release about the new study:
Neutrinos are neutral elementary particles born in the radioactive decay of other particles. The known "flavors" of neutrinos are the neutral counterparts of electrons and their heavier cousins, muons and taus. Regardless of a neutrino's original flavor, the particles constantly flip from one type to another in a phenomenon called "neutrino flavor oscillation."

An electron neutrino might become a muon neutrino, and then later an electron neutrino again. Scientists previously believed three flavors of neutrino exist. In this Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment, dubbed MiniBooNE, researchers detected more oscillations than would be possible if there were only three flavors.

"These results imply that there are either new particles or forces we had not previously imagined," said Byron Roe, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, and an author of a paper on the results newly published online in Physical Review Letters.

"The simplest explanation involves adding new neutrino-like particles, or sterile neutrinos, which do not have the normal weak interactions."

The three known types of neutrino interact with matter primarily through the weak nuclear force, which makes them difficult to detect. It is hypothesized that this fourth flavor would not interact through the weak force, making it even harder to find.

The existence of sterile neutrinos could help explain the composition of the universe, said William Louis, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was a doctoral student of Roe's at U-M and is involved in the MiniBooNE experiment.

(Excerpt) Read more at io9.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: cosmology; darkenergy; darkforce; darkmatter; muonneutrino; neutrinos; physics; science; speedofdark; sterileneutrino; stringtheory
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To: Gadsden1st
Strange indeed. A quick check shows neutrinos to be both massless and yet travel at the speed of light. At the same time, they must have mass in order to oscillate their flavor. Neutrino flux also affects the decay rate of isotopes - the half life used for carbon dating for instance. That blows up that technique for dating past events. Bottom line, the more they know, the less they know about it.

Special department of unobservable phenomenon kudos here.

41 posted on 11/04/2010 1:08:46 PM PDT by Huebolt (It's not over until there is not ONE DEMOCRAT HOLDING OFFICE ANYWHERE. Not even a dog catcher!)
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To: evets
Wow, I've never seen anyone get so excited about a little violation of charge-parity symmetry.

So glad to have made your day.

42 posted on 11/04/2010 1:11:20 PM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Fear God and Government - especially when one tries to become the other!)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
The article actually says:
And we may be a few steps closer to understanding all the matter we haven't yet discovered, and have therefore labeled "dark."
Actually, it's called "dark" matter because it does not interact with electromagnetic fields (like light). Our preception of the universe is primarily through electromagnetic radiation or the effects of electronic interactions (touch) and, ultimately, sound. (Sound is only explainable in terms of electronic properties of matter.) Neutrinos were originally "discovered" in the negative: to account for the missing mass/energy and momentum in subatomic particle interactions. "Dark" matter was never any more mysterious than positing particles that behaved in some ways like neutrinos, but weren't like neutrinos, at least like the ones we know about. (Dark matter was "discovered" in an attempt to account for gravitational effects not explainable by the observed mass in the universe, i.e., discovered in the negative.)
43 posted on 11/04/2010 1:12:09 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Go Packers!)
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To: mmichaels1970

No, mesons are now on par with the neutrino.

They are now parmesons..............


44 posted on 11/04/2010 1:12:46 PM PDT by Red Badger (WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE GIVE MEGHAN MCCAIN A BOX OF KRISPY KREMES SO SHE'LL SHUT THE HELL UP?!)
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To: lbryce
I'm still waiting from someone to explain this symmetry of hexagonal rings on Saturn's poles. Talk about violations of symmetry!
45 posted on 11/04/2010 1:13:47 PM PDT by DocRock (All they that TAKE the sword shall perish with the sword. Matthew 26:52 Gun grabbers beware.)
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To: blueplum

By its “oscillations” (no stripper jokes, please).


46 posted on 11/04/2010 1:14:12 PM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Fear God and Government - especially when one tries to become the other!)
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To: Gator113
Will it someday be discovered that we never really existed?

What will we do on that day?

Since we wouldn't exist, by definition, nothing.

&le:}B^)

47 posted on 11/04/2010 1:14:47 PM PDT by Erasmus (Personal goal: Have a bigger carbon footprint than Tony Robbins.)
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To: The Comedian
Funny and smart. Good combination.

May the Schwartz be with you.

48 posted on 11/04/2010 1:17:31 PM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Fear God and Government - especially when one tries to become the other!)
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To: Aevery_Freeman; All

2 x 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2


49 posted on 11/04/2010 1:19:28 PM PDT by GOYAKLA (Flush Congress in 2010 & 2012)
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To: lbryce

Funny thing after I read this I remember thinking the same thing the other day and pondering on whether I should publish it or not. I finally opted to go get a banana split instead. Obviously I made the right decision!!!


50 posted on 11/04/2010 1:22:55 PM PDT by ontap
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To: 668 - Neighbor of the Beast
You thought wrong.
51 posted on 11/04/2010 1:22:57 PM PDT by starlifter (Sapor Amo Pullus)
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To: lbryce
>And we may be a few steps closer to understanding all the matter we haven't yet discovered, and have therefore labeled "dark."

Here there be dragons.

52 posted on 11/04/2010 1:23:09 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: DocRock

Hexagonal cells are the result of convection. They are common and you can make them in your stove.


53 posted on 11/04/2010 1:23:52 PM PDT by battlecry
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To: Uncle Ike

Like the story the other week that their “red shift” theory doesn’t apply to Quasars, the idea has been resisted for a decade but its pretty much confirmed they aren’t nearly as far away or moving as fast as the “red shift” says. (Probably because those things spin so fast - my theory)


54 posted on 11/04/2010 1:24:49 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com <--- My Fiction/ Science Fiction Board)
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To: battlecry

They’re really good with chocolate chips I hear!!!


55 posted on 11/04/2010 1:24:52 PM PDT by ontap
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To: lbryce

Please, can anyone tell me whats to fear from the European collider? What do people think?


56 posted on 11/04/2010 1:26:06 PM PDT by STD (He walks like a duck, he talks like a duck, yo' mama married two of the duckers, U a duck Boy!)
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To: lbryce

That’s nothing! I’ve discovered a ‘dark matter’ black hole, something I’ve dubbed an ‘Asshole’ living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!


57 posted on 11/04/2010 1:28:28 PM PDT by Doc Savage (Stay Thirsty My Friend!!)
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To: muawiyah
Maybe it's a buttino, and it's hot, and cold, at the same time!

I think Taco Bell already has that on the menu. Goes right through you too.

58 posted on 11/04/2010 1:28:51 PM PDT by eggman (NPR - Conformity is the new Diversity)
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To: lbryce
Boone:

MiniBooNE:


59 posted on 11/04/2010 1:35:02 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: DocRock
Yes! Absolutely, mind-bogglingly freaky! I'm quite familiar with Saturn's breathlessly inexplicable hexagon first sighted by Voyagers 1 & 2 in the 1980's.

Scientists are more than baffled by what is a seemingly unnatural hexagonal-shaped object that encompasses Saturn's entire north pole.

Imagine scientist's befuddlement when having sighted the first images of the hexagon by Voyagers 1 & 2, the spacecrafts' cameras only pointed at capturing a small glimpse of the hexagon having to wait twenty odd years to getting a look at the hexagon in its entirety! Many of them had thought it was a temporary phenomena in Saturn's clouds only to be shocked it was still there two decades later.

60 posted on 11/04/2010 1:35:05 PM PDT by lbryce (Obama Notwithstanding, America's Best Days Are Yet To Be .)
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