Today we are going to talk about the most elusive particles in nature. We are referring to neutrinos. These are particles that were theoretically described for the first time in the 30s by a scientist focused on quantum physics called Wolfgang Pauli. They are very difficult to detect particles since they hardly interact with ordinary matter.
Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you all the characteristics, importance and curiosities of neutrinos.
Key features
There is an explanation why these particles are so difficult to detect. And it is that they are particles that hardly interact with ordinary matter. Furthermore, they have a very small mass and a neutral electrical charge, hence their name. They are particles that can be faced with nuclear reactions and not be influenced. They are also not affected by other forces such as electromagnetic. The only ways to interact with neutrinos are through the action of gravity and a small weak nuclear interaction. There is no doubt that they are quite curious particles that caught the attention of many scientists focused on quantum physics.
In order to detect the neutrinos, it would be necessary to manufacture a lead sheet with a thickness of one light year to ensure that half of these neutrinos that pass through it could collide to be able to trap them. Scientists claim how difficult it is to capture a neutrino. In order to explain this, we see that in every second that time passes several million of these particles pass through our planet and ourselves without actually colliding. They also did not collide with any other particular, although some of them do.
Capture the neutrinos
Neutrinos can be illustrated by resorting to quantum mechanics. According to these principles it would be necessary to build a lead sheet with dimensions of (9,46 × 1012 km to be able to capture half of the neutrinos that pass through it. Despite how elusive neutrinos are today, we have several observatories that are capable of detecting them. One of these observatories is known as the Japanese Super-Kamiokande and is a real machine. The observatory is located in Hida, the largest island in the archipelago of Japan.
Super-Kamiokande has been built inside a mine one kilometer deep. This observatory has dimensions of 40 meters high and 40 meters wide. This volume is similar to that of a 15-story building. You just have to see the size of the observatory that is needed to do it in linen to understand the difficulty of detecting them.
Inside the observatory we find nothing more and nothing less than 50.000 tons of water with extreme poverty that are surrounded by 11.000 photomultiplier tubes. These photomultipliers are a kind of sensors that allow us to see neutrinos as they pass through our planet. It is not that you can see these neutrinos directly, but you can observe the Cherenkov radiation that they generate when passing through the water. Water is a conductive substance and a fluid considered to be the universal solvent. Thanks to the properties of water, we can see the radiation that neutrinos give off when they pass through it.
Neutrino curiosities
The most curious thing about all this novelty is that scientists work inside this observatory and have made several discoveries. One of these discoveries is that by using less water and less pure water, you can observe neutrinos that have recurred at a greater distance. That is to say, These neutrinos that can be observed in this type of water come from an older supernova.
The impurity that is added to the water to be able to visualize these neutrinos is gadolinium. It is a chemical element belonging to the group of rare earths that has an effect of being incorporated into the water. This effect drastically increases the sensitivity of the detector to be able to visualize the passage of neutrinos. Researchers working at this observatory added 13 tons of a compound formed by gadolinium to high-purity water. This makes the total concentration of this element in the general solution to be 0.01%. This concentration is necessary to be able to amplify the signal of the weaker neutrinos and thus be able to observe them.
Importance
You can think that why do scientists make all this effort to study more particular interest. And it is that, although we do not believe it, they are an essential tool that can provide us with a large amount of information about supernovae. The supernova are the violent explosions that occur in those stars that are already unable to withstand the pressure due to the degeneration of electrons. This knowledge is vital to know more about the structure of the universe.
Neutrinos move at a great speed very close to the speed of light. We know that no body that has mass can move at the speed of light. Therefore, this indicates that neutrinos have mass. Thanks to this, a series of elementary particle reactions can also be explained. The importance of the neutrinos having more appropriate is tremendous. This means that neutrinos that have mass do not fit into the standard model of particles that are discussed in theoretical physics. The classical quantum physics model is more outdated and certain changes need to be made. Ports of knowledge are increasing.
The fact that neutrinos have mass explains many things. Keep in mind that the quantum physics model has between 14 and 20 arbitrary parameters and is a not so effective model for current science. As you can see, neutrinos have a great relevance in the world of quantum physics and the knowledge of the universe.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about what neutrinos are, their characteristics and importance for the world of science and astronomy.