Neutronat has no small, frightening work

Physicists have put a new limit on the size of a long -standing neutrino – one of the smallest known universe molecules – a limit that makes other atomic particles look great like black holes in comparison.

In a new result Published This week in science, the researchers put a new limit on the ITSY-BITSY particle: no more than 0.45 volts electron (EV). For context, this is less than a million electron block, which is racing at 511,000 volts. So, yes – Neutrinos is Sarcastic Lightweight.

The trilets of neutrons pass through your body every second, but they are so small and are so weak that you do not feel anything.

Neutrone is the only well -known primary particles whose bloc remains unknown, although the questions remain about the quality of those initial particles Cooperation with the standard model. Determination of the Neutrino block may accurately provide deep visions of the laws of the universe. Does the neutrinos get their blocks from? Higz BusonAs other particles do? Or is there a completely new mechanism in playing?

Enter the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experience, or Catherine, a 75 -foot vacuum room (23 meters long). Scientists monitor the radiation decomposition of ritium inside the vacuum room; As tritium decomposes, it spits electrons and antineutrinos. Researchers cannot measure Antineutrinos directly (they are a ghost through matter like nothing), but they can (and do) study the remaining electron energy to make inferences about the mass of lost particles.

After analyzing 259 days of data, the Katrin team managed to reduce its best estimate for the Neutrino bloc (0.8 volts) almost half. But they did not end; By the time when the full 1,000 -day data set is destroyed, the team hopes to pay this limit to the mass to 0.3 volts, and perhaps up to 0.2 volts.

Neutronat still has a lot of tricks, even the sleeves without atomic. Kfizia Susan Mertens from the Max Planck Institute Put itKatrin’s cooperation can be the back door in new physics – and perhaps a better understanding of how the early universe develops.

In February, he discovered a different team Most active neutrino (Ghost molecules of their mysterious nature are also called in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, indicating that particles may emit reactions between the material and the background of the cosmic microwave – the oldest visible light in the universe.

If the neutrino mass is more than that – Catherine can find its actual value. But with the fact that the particle is very small, a new and improved detector – Katrin ++ – may be needed to accurately measure its mass.

Few things in life are certain, but among the things we can reliably expect are death and taxes, and neutrino is smaller than ever.