Posted on 03/22/2016 10:11:28 AM PDT by blam
Ron Cowen
3-22-2016
In tunnels deep inside a granite mountain at Daya Bay, a nuclear reactor facility some 55 kilometers from Hong Kong, sensitive detectors are hinting at the existence of a new form of neutrino, one of nature’s most ghostly and abundant elementary particles.
Neutrinos, electrically neutral particles that sense only gravity and the weak nuclear force, interact so feebly with matter that 100 trillion zip unimpeded through your body every second. They come in three known types: electron, muon and tau. The Daya Bay results suggest the possibility that a fourth, even more ghostly type of neutrino exists — one more than physicists’ standard theory allows.Dubbed the sterile neutrino, this phantom particle would carry no charge of any kind and would be impervious to all forces other than gravity. Only when shedding its invisibility cloak by transforming into an electron, muon or tau neutrino could the sterile neutrino be detected.
Definitive evidence “would open up a whole new avenue of research,” says particle physicist Stephen Parke of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.Possible evidence for the sterile particle comes from a mismatch between theory and experiment.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at myinforms.com ...
Could this be the source of my frequent ........?
(Ahem, your honor, the neutrinos made me do it.)
Possible evidence for the sterile particle comes from a mismatch between theory and experiment.
Funny how that happens.
Little Neutrino
KLAATU
Songwriters
LONG, DEE(DAVID)
Published by
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Across your open mind
I trace erratic lines
In motion and in time
I fought a battle won
To the surface of the sun
Through fires on and on
It’s only you
It can’t be me
For I myself refuse to be
I am someone you’ll never know
I am the little neutrino
Solus is not far away
It’s face is brighter than a day
So don’t turn me away
It’s only you
It can’t be me
For I myself refuse to be
I am someone you’ll never know
I am the little neutrino
And now I’m passing through
The one who’s known as you
And yet you’ll never know I do
“Good-night”
Sounds like this fourth neutrino gets very little respect. Like Shemp, or Zeppo, maybe even Joe Besser.
Fourth neutrino? I thought Rubio withdrew?
Barack Obama : Fourth neutrino or twentieth hijacker.
You decide.
.......and funding.............................
no, Barry is a Bugon... unlike neutrinos, even one can cause major damage.
one more than physicists' standard theory allows
There goes the Three Stooges / Marx Brothers theory of physics.
But seriously, observations that deviate from the standard model would be a big deal.
Let me get this straight. You mean there’s more going on than one proton, one neutron encircled by one electron? When did they discover that?
No bother to investigate. Science is ran by consensus now. If enough scientists say something then there is no more debating it.
Ernest Lawrence, a pure experimentalist... said, "Don't you worry about it -- the theorists will find a way to make them all the same." -- Alvarez by Luis Alvarez (page 184)
As sterile neutrinos have low mass and might interact in neutrino oscillations at low energies, this looks promising, but just 3 sigma is not enough. It should be 5, as this is hard science not sociology or medical research.
But, there are many theories about sterile neutrinos, and some observations:
http://arxiv.org/find/all/1/all:+EXACT+Sterile_neutrino/0/1/0/all/0/1
Only experiments will exclude the bad ones, although many elegant theories will stay alive too long.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3403583/posts?page=16#16
Note: this topic is from . Thanks blam.
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