Physicists soon will be closer than ever to answering fundamental questions about the origins of the universe by learning more about its tiniest particles.
University of Cincinnati Professor Alexandre Sousa in a new paper outlined the next 10 years of global research into the behavior of neutrinos, particles so tiny that they pass through virtually everything by the trillions every second at nearly the speed of light.
Neutrinos are the most abundant particles with mass in the universe, so scientists want to know more about them.
They are created by nuclear fusion reactions in the sun, radioactive decay in nuclear reactors or the Earth's crust or in particle accelerator labs. As they travel, they can transition between one of three types or "flavors" of neutrinos and back.
But unexpected experimental results made physicists suspect there might be another neutrino flavor, called a sterile neutrino because it appears immune to three of the four known "forces." READ MORE...
