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Lecture

Neutrinos and Neutrino Oscillations

In course

PHYS-416: Particle physics II

This course aims to make students familiar and comfortable with the main concepts of particle physics, providing a clear connection between the theory and relevant experimental results, including the most recent ones from modern particle physics experiment ...

Description

This lecture covers the detection of neutrinos via weak interactions, the distinction between weak and mass eigenstates, neutrino oscillations for two and three flavors, the PMNS matrix, CP and CPT symmetries in weak interactions, neutrino mass hierarchies, and experimental methods like Super Kamiokande and SNO for solar neutrinos, as well as CHOOZ and KamLAND for reactor neutrinos.

Instructor

Lesya Shchutska

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Particle physics: Standard Model, Neutrinos

Related concepts (32)

Neutrino oscillation

Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which a neutrino created with a specific lepton family number ("lepton flavor": electron, muon, or tau) can later be measured to have a different lepton family number. The probability of measuring a particular flavor for a neutrino varies between three known states, as it propagates through space. First predicted by Bruno Pontecorvo in 1957, neutrino oscillation has since been observed by a multitude of experiments in several different contexts.

Neutrino

A neutrino (njuːˈtriːnoʊ ; denoted by the Greek letter ν) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of 1 /2) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small (-ino) that it was long thought to be zero. The rest mass of the neutrino is much smaller than that of the other known elementary particles excluding massless particles.

Supernova neutrinos

Supernova neutrinos are weakly interactive elementary particles produced during a core-collapse supernova explosion. A massive star collapses at the end of its life, emitting on the order of 1058 neutrinos and antineutrinos in all lepton flavors. The luminosity of different neutrino and antineutrino species are roughly the same. They carry away about 99% of the gravitational energy of the dying star as a burst lasting tens of seconds. The typical supernova neutrino energies are 10MeV.

Neutral particle oscillation

In particle physics, neutral particle oscillation is the transmutation of a particle with zero electric charge into another neutral particle due to a change of a non-zero internal quantum number, via an interaction that does not conserve that quantum number. Neutral particle oscillations were first investigated in 1954 by Murray Gell-mann and Abraham Pais. For example, a neutron cannot transmute into an antineutron as that would violate the conservation of baryon number.

Neutrino detector

A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground, to isolate the detector from cosmic rays and other background radiation. The field of neutrino astronomy is still very much in its infancy – the only confirmed extraterrestrial sources are the Sun and the supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud.

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Astroparticle Physics: Neutrinos and Dark Matter

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Neutrino Decoupling in Early Universe

Explores neutrino decoupling in the early universe and its implications on cosmic evolution.

The CKM Matrix and CP Violation

Covers CP violation, the CKM matrix, quark interactions, and neutral kaons.

Neutrino and gravitational wave telescopes MOOC: The Radio Sky II: Observational Radio Astronomy