Do right-handed neutrinos exist?

Do right-handed neutrinos exist?

In particle physics, handedness is a quality that emerges from a particle’s mass and spin. As massless particles, neutrinos wouldn’t be able to change their handedness—but with mass, they can. That means there can be this right-handed, sterile neutrino.”

Are neutrinos real?

Neutrinos are fundamental particles but do not interact with normal matter very strongly, such that around 50 trillion neutrinos from the Sun pass through your body every second. The fact that muon neutrinos oscillate into electron neutrinos was first discovered by the T2K experiment in 2013.

Is there a fourth neutrino?

For more than two decades, this proposed fourth neutrino, the sterile neutrino, has remained a promising explanation for anomalies seen in earlier physics experiments. Finding a new particle would be a major discovery and a radical shift in our understanding of the universe.

What are sterile neutrinos?

So sterile neutrinos could tie into many different elements of physics. All neutrinos that scientists have seen so far are left-handed, and all antineutrinos are right-handed, but if there were right-handed neutrinos, they could act just like sterile neutrinos.

Are there right-handed neutrinos?

But if there are right-handed neutrinos, they could be the predicted sterile neutrinos. Because the weak force would ignore them, sterile (right-handed) neutrinos would interact only through gravity, making them borderline invisible. One way to discover these secretive particles involves oscillation.

What do we know about neutrinos from space?

Some experiments have seen an excess neutrino oscillation where theory predicted they shouldn’t be. And some experiments have seen neutrinos appearing or disappearing over much shorter distances than the experiments on neutrinos from more distant locations, such as the atmosphere or sun.

For more than two decades, this theory of a fourth neutrino has remained a promising explanation for anomalies seen in earlier physics experiments. Finding a new particle would be a major discovery and a radical shift in our understanding of the universe. And also a likely Nobel Prize. But it’s not to be.