Neutrinos are elusive subatomic particles with low mass and no electric charge. They are difficult to detect due to their slight interaction with atoms. Neutrinos are generated during beta decay and can be detected using nuclear technology. Modern methods can detect up to one neutrino per day.
A particle with a very low mass, around that of an electron, and with no electric charge, the neutrino is an elusive subatomic particle. The neutrino is so shy that the duration between theorization of its existence and its actual discovery was 25 years. Wolfgang Pauli, a famous quantum physicist, theorized the neutrino in 1931. It was discovered by Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan in 1956 in a neutrino observatory located near a nuclear power plant in Savannah River, South Carolina.
Neutrinos travel nearly the speed of light, and many quadrillions of them enter your body every second. But because neutrinos are so low in mass and interact only slightly with atoms, they can penetrate several light-years of densely packed matter before interacting with an atom. For this reason they are very difficult to detect.
Neutrinos are generated during an event known in physics as beta decay. It seemed hopeless to detect neutrinos until the advent of nuclear technology. Atomic bombs and nuclear reactors have been found to be rich sources of neutrino activity relative to a typical spot on Earth. The first neutrino detectors were tanks filled with water and cadmium chloride. The first neutrino detected was in fact not a conventional neutrino but an antineutrino.
When an antineutrino collided with a proton in the neutrino detector, the interaction produced a neutron and a positron, or an antielectron. The resulting anti-electron would quickly annihilate with one of the electrons orbiting the nucleus, causing a two-photon splash. So a stray neutron released from the breaking up of the atom at the end (~15 ms) would be picked up by another intact atom, releasing more photons (light). This distinct 2-stage pattern of photon release could be amplified by photoamplifiers, thus triggering a log and providing positive evidence for neutrino impact.
With modern methods, up to one neutrino is detected in our observatories per day. The neutrino is a great example of a fundamental particle that becomes more understandable as the quality of our scientific instruments improves. The continued collection of evidence regarding the neutrino and its properties will surely contribute invaluable to the advancement of contemporary theoretical physics, which in turn will generate useful technological and theoretical discoveries for human civilization.
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