Posted on 07/23/2013 9:35:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Exotic particles called neutrinos have been caught in the act of shape-shifting, switching from one flavor to another, in a discovery that could help solve the mystery of antimatter.
Neutrinos come in three flavors — electron, muon and tau — and have been known to change, or oscillate, between certain flavors. Now, for the first time, scientists can definitively say they've discovered muon neutrinos changing into electron neutrinos.
The discovery was made at the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan, where scientists sent a beam of muon neutrinos from the J-PARC laboratory in Tokai Village on the eastern coast of Japan, streaming 183 miles (295 km) away to the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in the mountains of Japan's northwest.
The researchers detected an average of 22.5 electron neutrinos in the beam that reached the Super-Kamiokande detector, suggesting a certain portion of the the muon neutrinos had oscillated into electron neutrinos; if no oscillation had occurred, the researchers should have detected just 6.4 electron neutrinos.
In 2011, T2K scientists announced they'd seen indications that this shape-shifting was taking place, but they couldn't say with certainty that the effect wasn't one of chance. The experiment has now collected enough data for the researchers to say the probability of this effect being produced by random statistical fluctuations is less than one in a trillion.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
This might affect my anti-gravity experiments.
Great - all of this experimentation to find out the flavor of neutrinos, no doubt contributing to more waste in Yucca Mountain.
Are those the flavors that my testicles can taste?
So, it really is strawberry fields forever???
IIRC, this was the explanation for the solar neutrino count being 1/3 of the expected number.
Could be...
Testicles have taste buds that can detect sweet flavours - and they're vital for fertility
I'm not sure about electron and tau, but I've heard that muon shifts from chicken to root-beer to broccoli to mashed potatoes, and back to chicken.
Let me predict: all the particles ultimately possess this characteristic. They begin looking at any Progressive and, seeing how they lie and change their positions, the particles just assume they can assume any characertistic THEY want.
Particle Physics is liberal? Who woulda thunk... are colleges now teaching this in their physics department?
RE: There are about 1011 (100 billion) solar neutrinos zipping through each and every square centimenter of your body per second
I don’t mind that as long as they don’t cause cancer... :)
Not to worry, they’re not known to cause cancer.
OTOH, independent studies have shown that the reaction cross-section of neutrino absorption is about 5% higher in liberals than in conservatives. Scientists attribute “liberal madness” to this fact.
Now we know what particles make up a politician.
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