![]() Consider something very small, like a virus. Put this context for us: How light is this, and how big a deal is it that the neutrino’s maximum mass could be half of what people previously thought?Ī: Well, that’s somewhat of a difficult question, since people (myself included) don’t really have an intuitive sense of what the mass is of any particle, but let’s try. Q: The neutrino, based on KATRIN’s findings, can’t be more massive than 1 electron volt. Joseph Formaggio, professor of physics at MIT, is a leading member of the KATRIN experimental group, and spoke with MIT News about the new estimate and the road ahead in the neutrino search. While the neutrinos are quick to dissipate, KATRIN’s sequence of magnets directs tritium’s electrons into the the heart of the experiment - a giant 200-ton spectrometer, where the electrons’ mass and energy can be measured, and from there, researchers can calculate the mass of the corresponding neutrinos. The experiment triggers tritium gas to decay, which in turn releases neutrinos, along with electrons. The new estimate was determined based on data taken by KATRIN, the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment, at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, and reported at the 2019 Conference on Astroparticle and Underground Physics last week. Scientists previously estimated the upper limit of the neutrino’s mass to be around 2 electron volts, so this new estimate shaves down the neutrino’s mass range by more than half. The researchers have determined that the mass of the neutrino should be no more than 1 electron volt. These ghost-like particles permeate the universe and yet are thought to be nearly massless, streaming by the millions through our bodies while leaving barely any physical trace. An international team of scientists, including researchers at MIT, has come closer to pinning down the mass of the elusive neutrino. ![]()
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