Under scrutiny: The neutral charge that gave this particle its name
Scientists will have a new tool to probe neutrinos for electromagnetic properties
Producing a shower of neutrinos at unusually high energies is one aim of the Forward Physics Facility, a proposed underground lab at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. In a recent paper, an international team concluded that the facility’s neutrino detectors could pick up electromagnetic properties with greater sensitivity than previous measurements.
Why this matters: Neutrinos are elusive particles with a supposedly neutral electric charge. However, quantum effects and new physics could induce tiny electromagnetic properties in neutrinos (e.g., a weak electric charge or a fleeting magnetic pull). Discovering new properties of neutrinos could revolutionize our understanding of the universe and perhaps lead to technologies that benefit society.
What they did: The team, including a director’s postdoctoral fellow from Los Alamos National Laboratory (Yu-Dai Tsai), demonstrated that the facility’s detectors can provide more sensitive measurements of the tau neutrino's magnetic moment and millicharge than previous experiments. The capability also would provide fresh opportunities to study high-energy neutrinos.
What’s next: Once the facility is built and open to experiments, the team plans to collect and analyze signals from rare events when neutrinos interact with an atom in the facility’s detector. If they observe more interactions than expected or detect unusual patterns, it could indicate that neutrinos have additional properties, like a small electric charge or magnetic moment, which likely would be a groundbreaking discovery in physics.
Funding: This research is partially supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) operates the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.
LA-UR-25-26070
Share
Stay up to date
Subscribe to Stay Informed of Recent Science, Technology and Engineering Highlights from LANL
Subscribe NowMore STE Highlights Stories
STE Highlights Home
A surprising use for distorted data to glean hidden laws
Scientists explore the use of metastable data for machine learning to study complex systems
When magnetism becomes superconductivity's ally
In nickelate thin films, superconductivity vanishes — then reappears — as the magnetic field grows stronger
Making tiny glass parts? Try printing them
Los Alamos method builds small glass components layer by layer
Valley fever’s far-flung travels captured by machine learning
Los Alamos scientists study the genomes of fungi in complex environments to understand their impact
Society of Petroleum Engineers honors Los Alamos scientist for high-volume peer reviews
Meng is associate editor of 2 journals
Proton radiography team receives NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence
Plutonium experiments support the nation’s nuclear weapons program