www.inverse.com Open in urlscan Pro
13.32.99.88  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

/search

<form action="/search" target="_top" autocomplete="off" autocapitalize="off" class="hgs zll Bgb">
  <div class="oqJ"></div><input type="search" placeholder="Search Inverse..." aria-label="Search Input" name="q" value="" class="Xbg">
</form>

<form id="verticalsForm" class="eWo"><input aria-label="Hide subverticals" id="subv_reset" type="reset" class="nic">
  <div class="fzk"><input aria-label="Show subverticals" id="subv_science" name="subvertical" type="radio" value="Science" class="hGr">
    <div class="j_Z"><label class="Amc" for="subv_science"><a href="/science">Science</a></label><label class="nMx" for="subv_reset"></label></div>
    <div class="qcC">
      <div class="Hia">
        <a href="/space" class="false"><span>Space</span></a><a href="/climate-crisis" class="false"><span>Climate Crisis</span></a><a href="/nature" class="false"><span>Nature</span></a><a href="/ancient-humans" class="false"><span>Ancient Humans</span></a><a href="/science" class="Pzm"><span>See All</span></a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="fzk"><input aria-label="Show subverticals" id="subv_innovation" name="subvertical" type="radio" value="Innovation" class="hGr">
    <div class="j_Z"><label class="Amc" for="subv_innovation"><a href="/innovation">Innovation</a></label><label class="nMx" for="subv_reset"></label></div>
    <div class="qcC">
      <div class="Hia">
        <a href="/muskreads" class="false"><span>Elon Musk</span></a><a href="/transportation" class="false"><span>Transportation</span></a><a href="/artificial-intelligence" class="false"><span>Artificial Intelligence</span></a><a href="/innovation" class="Pzm"><span>See All</span></a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="fzk"><input aria-label="Show subverticals" id="subv_entertainment" name="subvertical" type="radio" value="Entertainment" class="hGr">
    <div class="j_Z"><label class="Amc" for="subv_entertainment"><a href="/entertainment">Entertainment</a></label><label class="nMx" for="subv_reset"></label></div>
    <div class="qcC">
      <div class="Hia">
        <a href="/multiverse" class="false"><span>Multiverse</span></a><a href="/inverse-reviews" class="false"><span>Reviews</span></a><a href="/marvel-universe" class="false"><span>The MCU</span></a><a href="/entertainment" class="Pzm"><span>See All</span></a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="fzk"><input aria-label="Show subverticals" id="subv_mind-body" name="subvertical" type="radio" value="Mind and Body" class="hGr">
    <div class="j_Z"><label class="Amc" for="subv_mind-body"><a href="/mind-body">Mind and Body</a></label><label class="nMx" for="subv_reset"></label></div>
    <div class="qcC">
      <div class="Hia">
        <a href="/mens-health" class="false"><span>Men's Health</span></a><a href="/longevity-hacks" class="false"><span>Longevity Hacks</span></a><a href="/public-health" class="false"><span>Public Health</span></a><a href="/strategy-by-inverse" class="false"><span>Strategy</span></a><a href="/mental-health" class="false"><span>Mental Health</span></a><a href="/mind-body" class="Pzm"><span>See All</span></a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="fzk"><input aria-label="Show subverticals" id="subv_gaming" name="subvertical" type="radio" value="Gaming" class="hGr">
    <div class="j_Z"><label class="Amc" for="subv_gaming"><a href="/gaming">Gaming</a></label><label class="nMx" for="subv_reset"></label></div>
    <div class="qcC">
      <div class="Hia">
        <a href="/inverse-video-game-reviews" class="false"><span>Video Game Reviews</span></a><a href="/inverse-gaming-walkthroughs" class="false"><span>Walkthroughs</span></a><a href="/inverse-open-world" class="false"><span>Open World</span></a><a href="/gaming" class="Pzm"><span>See All</span></a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="fzk">
    <div class="Amc"><a href="/culture">Culture</a></div>
  </div>
  <div class="fzk">
    <div class="Amc"><a href="/longreads">Longreads</a></div>
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY

We and our partners store and/or access information on a device, such as cookies
and process personal data, such as unique identifiers and standard information
sent by a device for personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement,
and audience insights, as well as to develop and improve products.
With your permission we and our partners may use precise geolocation data and
identification through device scanning. You may click to consent to our and our
partners’ processing as described above. Alternatively you may access more
detailed information and change your preferences before consenting or to refuse
consenting.
Please note that some processing of your personal data may not require your
consent, but you have a right to object to such processing. Your preferences
will apply to this website only. You can change your preferences at any time by
returning to this site or visit our privacy policy.
MORE OPTIONSAGREE


Innovation


PHYSICISTS HAVE DETECTED A "GHOST" PARTICLE AT CERN FOR THE FIRST TIME

CERN physicists captured a tau neutrino using a photography-like method.

Shutterstock
Sarah Wells
2 hours ago


Millions of barely perceptible “ghost” particles called neutrinos fly through
our bodies at every second. With almost zero mass and no charge, these particles
don’t even so much as tickle us.

They do, however, hold secrets that could unlock the very origins of matter
itself from the universe’s first moments.



These particles are incredibly difficult to detect, but that could soon be
changing. For the first time, scientists have shown that particle colliders,
like those at CERN, can be used to detect these apparitions in droves. For the
tau neutrino, in particular, this could bring their total detected count from
only a handful to thousands.

The results were published Wednesday in the journal Physical Review D.

Thousands of neutrinos are being created at CERN’s large hadron collider every
day — but scientists are only just now attempting to detect them.VALENTIN
FLAURAUD/AFP/Getty Images

What’s new — Particle colliders, like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN,
work by slamming beams of hadron particles (e.g., protons, etc.) into each other
at nearly the speed of light. As a result of these collisions, subatomic
particles such as quarks or bosons are shed and caught by detectors like ATLAS.
Neutrinos have always been a part of this process, but until this point, there
haven’t been any experiments designed to detect them.

Part of the problem is that the LHC uses magnets to direct particles around a
circular collision path with detectors dotted around these curves. These
magnetic traffic signs don’t impact chargeless particles like neutrinos. As a
result, they shoot off the edge of the detector path, like a drifter with a
blown tire.

In this subatomic slide, Jonathan Feng, a physicist at the University of
California Irvine, saw an opportunity to capture new data. Enter: FASER (ForwArd
Search ExpeRiment).

Feng, the lead researcher on the FASER collaboration, originally dreamt up FASER
as a way to capture a whole new class of supersymmetric particles. And while
that achievement may very well still be in FASER’s future, the experiments first
results released this month have confirmed the detection of six neutrinos at the
LHC.


WHAT IS A NEUTRINO AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

As mentioned above, a neutrino is an incredibly light (at least 6 million times
lighter than an electron) particle that has no charge and nearly no interaction
with matter as we know it. That’s why these particles can sail right through us
without us noticing.

Neutrino experiments can be pretty unconventional, including the
Super-Kamiokande in Japan which is full of tons of water and light
detectors.JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

High-energy nuclear physics happening at the heart of our sun rain neutrinos
down on Earth, providing most of the ones we can detect. But these tiny
particles can also be created from atomic decay, cosmic rays, and the collision
of Earthly particle beams. While neutrinos may be abundant, they’re difficult to
catch.

Some notable experiments studying neutrinos include Fermilab’s MiniBooNE, the
IceCube detector in Antarctica, and the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan. Like
FASER, these experiments all focus on detecting the constituent parts of a
neutrino that it decays into after striking an atomic nucleus just right.

FASER experiment — Compared to the resource requirements of its predecessors
(e.g., 50,000 tons of water in the case of Super-Kamiokande), FASER is a pretty
lean experiment. Cobbled together from leftover parts at CERN, the first
iteration of FASER weighs in at only 64 pounds (29 kg) — roughly the heft of a
medium-sized dog.

By 2022 however, the team plans to have a full-size version of FASER in place,
which will weigh more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) and be overall more powerful
and sensitive than the smaller pilot version.

FASER is optimally positioned in a forgotten section of the LHC to detect
flung-off neutrinos.CERN

But regardless of size, FASER works the same way using technology reminiscent of
film photography called emulsion detection to catch neutrinos:

 * Plates of lead and tungsten are sandwiched together with layers of emulsions
   — a kind of light-sensitive goop
 * Stray neutrinos flung of the LHC strike these plates and decay into new
   particles
 * These particles then leave marks in the emulsion layers that physicists can
   develop like a photo
 * Based on the energies of these marks, researchers can tell which flavor of
   neutrino is present — tau, muon, or electron — and whether or not it was a
   neutrino or anti-neutrino


WHAT IS A TAU NEUTRINO?

Neutrinos come in what physicists call “flavors” — either tau, muon, or
electron. Essentially, this title describes what the neutrino will break into
upon hitting an atomic nucleus. In addition to releasing a proton and
anti-neutrino in a process called beta minus decay, neutrinos will also release
either a muon, tau, or electron.



Of these flavors, tau neutrinos have proven to be the rarest and most
challenging to detect. Before the FASER experiment, only 10 tau neutrinos had
ever been observed, with the first detection occurring only twenty-one years ago
at Fermilab. The detection of tau neutrinos by FASER’s initial runs means that
many more tau observations may be just on the horizon.

The pilot of FASER may be tiny, but scientists are about to reveal a much larger
and more powerful version of this experiment.CERN


WHAT IS AN ANTI-NEUTRINO?

In addition to differentiating between different flavors of neutrinos, FASER
will also be able to distinguish between neutrinos and anti-neutrinos striking
its detector. While an anti-neutrino may sound like a villainous form of the
original neutrino, it’s actually just a neutrino with an opposite charge.
However, because both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos are electromagnetically
chargeless, this opposite charge refers to the particles’ lepton number instead
— a kind of quantum number used to describe the properties of subatomic
particles.

If this sounds confusing, that’s because it is — and scientists themselves
aren’t entirely sure what exactly separates a neutrino from an anti-neutrino.
However, studying more anti-neutrinos directly using experiments like FASER will
be a big step toward answering this question.

Beginning in 2022, the FASER team says they expect to start capturing 10,000 or
more neutrino signals using their detector. This data could be a huge step
forward when it comes to answering existential questions in physics, like where
matter comes from and why so much of it is dark.


Related Tags
 * Physics
 * Technology

Share:


✕

Science
SpaceClimate CrisisNatureAncient HumansSee All
Innovation
Elon MuskTransportationArtificial IntelligenceSee All
Entertainment
MultiverseReviewsThe MCUSee All
Mind and Body
Men's HealthLongevity HacksPublic HealthStrategyMental HealthSee All
Gaming
Video Game ReviewsWalkthroughsOpen WorldSee All
Culture
Longreads
 * About
 * Masthead
 * Newsletter
 * Terms
 * Topics
 * Privacy
 * Archive
 * DMCA
 * Browse
 * Advertise
 * Ethics
 * Contact
 * Consent Options

INVERSE © 2021 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved.