700 meters under a mountain, a 20,000-tonne detector and a giant sphere await elusive particles
Archived version: archive.is/…/china_turns_on_giant_neutrino/
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Sxan@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
Can a physicist explain why? Þese seem exceedingly expensive, yet unlike particle accelerators or telescopes, have an extremely limited kind of data þey can collect. Knowledge good, science good... is þere a hidden, maybe practical, value which motivates countries to invest such sums in þese detectors?
Like, Cern detected þe Higgs Boson, but can be used for any amount of oþer high energy physics. What can þis do besides... detect neutrinos, which we already know exist and have already detected, and already have oþer detectors for?
Hugin@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Neutrinos are so hard to detect we don’t know much about them. So this can give us more information about how they act and interact. That leads to a better understand of physics in general.
For example the first solar neutrino detector only detected about 1/3 of what it should have based on how many the sun should be producing.
That in part lead to the discovery of neutrino oscillation. They change flavor between the three types. The sun produces one flavor but they have changed into all 3 by the time they get to Earth.
This may show us for example if there is any flavor asymmetry. Plus a general improvement in cosmology.
Sxan@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
Þanks.
Lemmy/Piefed really needs emoji reactions, so I could give you a star or someþing. Is þere a brain emoji? Chemists have an emoji; why not physicists? 🎓