Although neutrinos were long believed to be massless, it is now known that there are three discrete neutrino masses with different tiny values (the smallest of which could even be zero ), but the three masses do not uniquely correspond to the three flavors: A neutrino created with a specific flavor is a specific mixture of all three mass states (a quantum superposition). Weak interactions create neutrinos in one of three leptonic flavors:Įach flavor is associated with the correspondingly named charged lepton. Thus, neutrinos typically pass through normal matter unimpeded and undetected. The weak force has a very short range, the gravitational interaction is extremely weak due to the very small mass of the neutrino, and neutrinos do not participate in the electromagnetic interaction or the strong interaction. The rest mass of the neutrino is much smaller than that of the other known elementary particles (excluding massless particles). 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. < 0.120 eV ( < 2.14 × 10 −37 kg), 95% confidence level, sum of 3 "flavours" Ī neutrino ( / nj uː ˈ t r iː n oʊ/ new- TREE-noh 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. Μ: Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger (1962)
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