Text Box: Reviewed 20 October 2007 Requests for clarifications to eugenesittampalam (at) gmail.com – most welcome!
Text Box: The neutrino was postulated by W. Pauli in 1930 in order to rescue the fundamental laws of conservation of energy and linear momentum that were seemingly being violated during radioactive beta decay. Pauli proposed that in beta decay a neutral particle of half-integer spin was emitted along with the electron (beta particle). He suggested that this particle was so elusive that it escaped direct experimental detection. In 1934, E. Fermi incorporated Pauli's new neutral particle into his seminal and highly successful theory of nuclear beta decay. ... Calculations based on Fermi's theory showed just how tiny the interactions of neutrinos with matter would be. ...the absorption cross section for free antineutrinos with energies of approximately 1 MeV scattering on protons is approximately 10–47 m2. This value is equivalent to a mean free path for the neutrino in water of 6 x 1014 mi (1 x 1015 km), about 105 times the diameter of the solar system. Neutrino, McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Physics, Second Edition, USA, 1993; p 821
Text Box: In the final perspective, the neutrino evolves from the nucleonic grain subjected to extreme ambient changes over a single breathing (vibrational) cycle. Typically, in the fusion of two protons, the neutrino ejects as the first equatorial exhalation quantum of the union. (The polar exhalation counterpart, a quantum of comparable mass-energy, is the positron.) See Nuclear Reactions; link below. In the neutron decay, the antineutrino ejects in a like manner as the first equatorial exhalation quantum of the resulting main body, the proton. (The polar counterpart of comparable mass-energy here is the electron.) The neutron decay is illustrated below. Fundamentally, the quantum that we recognize today as the neutrino (or antineutrino) is not any different from the equatorial exhalation energy each subatomic particle of matter emits over its breathing cycle even in its ground state. (The latter is only low in intensity.) Further, the energy quantum that is the neutrino is not much different either from the gamma-ray photon. Both originate from the nuclear surface region; both move (evaporate off) at speed c (only); both are subject to scattering (not “oscillation”); and both can thus spawn other quanta on encountering matter. Their only difference is in the mode of propagation: essentially, the photon is one-dimensional and the neutrino two-dimensional. That is, the photon is "needle" radiation, whereas the neutrino is broadside and spreading radially out from around the nuclear equator. Thus, the neutrino would drop in intensity with distance – the main reason for its seeming elusive nature. (For a fuller discussion, please see section 6 of A Synopsis.) Analytically, matter and energy particles are all constituted by the ultimate radiatons (note the spelling!); see Mass-Energy. In the photon, the constituent radiatons are all aligned, as the per-cycle quanta, and move in a single file from the source; in the neutrino, the movement is two-dimensional and divergent. The figures below should help further clarify the picture.
Text Box: Nucleons are the protons and neutrons that collectively constitute the atomic nucleus. Nucleons, however, are indistinguishable as protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. The only way to tell, for instance, the proton number of a nucleus (which is also its atomic number) is to reckon the number of surface nucleons without a countervailing contiguous surface quantum, or electron. (A surface nucleon associated with an opposing electron on the nuclear surface is considered a neutron, or neutral in chemistry; below the surface layer of nucleons, however, it's all neutrons, if any.) For the full text on the atomic nucleus, please see book chapter 6.
Text Box: In 1956 two American physicists, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, suggested that the weak force [which is responsible for radioactivity] does not in fact obey the symmetry P [which stipulates the laws of physics are the same for any situation and its mirror image]. ... The same year, a colleague, Chien-Shiung Wu, proved their prediction correct. She did this by lining up the nuclei of radioactive atoms in a magnetic field, so that they were all spinning in the same direction, and showed that the electrons were given off more in one direction than another. The following year, Lee and Yang received the Nobel prize for their idea. It was also found that the weak force did not obey the symmetry C [which stipulates the laws are the same for particles and antiparticles]. ... Nevertheless, it seemed that the weak force did obey the combined symmetry CP. That is, the universe would develop in the same way as its mirror image if, in addition, every particle was swapped with its antiparticle! However, in 1964 two more Americans, J. W. Cronin and Val Fitch, discovered that even the CP symmetry was not obeyed in the decay of certain particles called K-mesons. Cronin and Fitch eventually received the Nobel prize for their work in 1980. (A lot of prizes have been awarded for showing that the universe is not as simple as we might have thought!) Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam Press, UK, 1991; pp 77-78
Text Box: The ultracold neutrons can be stored in "neutron bottles," … Populations of about 100 neutrons have been retained in such vessels, but the storage times are considerably shorter than the half-life of the neutrons against their natural radioactive decay, and the nature of the extra loss mechanisms is not yet fully understood. Neutron, McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Physics, Second Edition, USA, 1993; p 826
Text Box: Important Notes on Spin 1. The electron is also known as the beta particle. Its emission is always in the direction opposite to that of the nuclear spin, as shown above. (Basically, it was this directional discovery in 1956 that led to the Nobel for Lee and Yang.) 2. The sub-c electron ejects with zero spin (save for its seminal spin) and subsequently waxes and wanes between a magnitude of ħ = h/2p and zero. The electron thus "borrows" and gives back the spin unit of ħ from the great bank that is the outside vacuum energy field. Statistically, this breathing gives the electron its characteristic half spin, or ħ/2, in magnitude. 3. The electron's equatorial counterpart, the speed-c electron-antineutrino carries with it the full magnitude of spin ħ at ejection. This spin does not wax or wane since neutrinos, like photons, propagate at speed c and do not breathe in and breath out mass-energy from the vacuum field like matter (sub-c) particles do. However, across the great vacuum energy field where everything is connected to everything else and accounted for, the spin magnitude of the electron-antineutrino is indeed ħ/2, as correctly reckoned today. This is simply to balance out its electron twin's borrowing! 4. The above insights apply equally to the positron and its equatorial counterpart, the neutrino. The evolution of the positron and the neutrino from the fusion of two protons is illustrated in Nuclear Reactions, link below. Please see also The Spin. 5. From the mode of birth, the electron's nonvanishing seminal spin is negative and the positron's is positive. These give the electron and the positron their respective spins of –ħ/2 and +ħ/2 over the breathing cycles.
Text Box: Four separate experiments to detect neutrinos from the Sun have now confirmed a deficit in the flux relative to the predictions of standard theories of nuclear physics. Future experiments with new neutrino detectors promise to reveal the explanation for this shortfall. The planned detectors may also engender a new field of astronomy, based on the observation of neutrino emission from distant, energetic astrophysical sources. Progress and prospects in neutrino astrophysics, John N. Bahcall (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ) et al, Nature 375, 29-34 (4 May 1995)
Text Box: Scattering of electromagnetic radiation The process in which energy is removed from a beam of electromagnetic radiation and reemitted with a change in direction, phase, or wavelength. All electromagnetic radiation is subject to scattering by the medium (gas, liquid, or solid) through which it passes. In the short-wavelength, high-energy regime, in which electromagnetic radiation is most easily discussed by means of a particle description, these processes are termed photon scattering. ... McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Physics, Second Edition, USA, 1993; p 1258
Text Box: The solar neutrino problem would be fully resolved – without creating other problems in physics – only when our model of the Sun changes from a fusion reactor to a fission reactor. Neutrino observatories should therefore seriously look for the greater electron-antineutrino flux coming our way from the Sun. (In fact, the finding would resonate across the entire realm of physics, disintegrating also the problematic black holes and dark matter in the process to nothingness! See The Cosmos and The Galaxy.) In this regard, letters were written to project directors of some of the topmost (and, in the physical sense, bottommost!) observatories in the world. The letters are self-explanatory and are reproduced in KamLAND Test. Again, the quantum that is the neutrino (or antineutrino) is not much different from the gamma-ray photon (see above). Photons, especially gamma rays, can get highly scattered through any intervening medium between source and detector. Neutrinos getting scattered likewise to other energy quanta is thus only natural and requires no fundamental rethinking. Hence, electron-neutrinos (or electron-antineutrinos) do not "oscillate" as conceived today but only scatter. They may thus spawn other known "flavors" such as muon-neutrinos just as much as gamma rays can scatter and produce X-rays. Further, production of higher-energy quanta, such as tau-neutrinos, becomes also appreciable when primary intensities are high. (Please see Two-Slit Tests for an illustration on frequency doubling.)
THE UNIFICATION OF PHYSICS ILLUSTRATIONS
A Synopsis The Cosmos The Spin
ADDENDA The Cosmological Redshift The Neutrino
Two-Slit Tests