In February 2023, a cosmic particle detector housed deep within the Mediterranean Sea recorded the arrival of a neutrino with roughly 20 to 30 instances extra power than another neutrino documented beforehand. Labelled KM3-230213A, the particle had a calculated power of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV), far better than the ten PeV of the beforehand most energetic neutrino. The discovering generated a whole lot of pleasure amongst physicists, however raised additionally many questions.
Neutrinos are the most considerable particles within the universe with mass. They’re a kind of elementary particle, which suggests they don’t break down into smaller constituents, and are subsequently very small and lightweight. In reality, they’re the lightest of all subatomic particles which have mass. Neutrinos additionally don’t have a cost (not like, say, electrons, one other sort of elementary particle, that are detrimental). Because of this, solely very not often do neutrinos work together with with different matter; usually they’ll cross straight by means of it with out altering it. In reality, trillions of neutrinos travelling by means of area can have handed by means of your physique because you began studying this text. Because of this neutrinos generally known as “ghost particles.”
For particle physicists, the detection of this anomalously energetic neutrino might solely be defined in two methods: Both KM3-230213A was proof of a cosmic course of, probably one by no means witnessed earlier than, with the potential to alter our understanding of neutrinos; or it was a disappointing measurement error. Researchers rapidly set to work to seek out out which clarification was true.
Now there appears to be a solution. A complete examine printed within the journal Bodily Assessment X in contrast the information of KM3-230213A with databases of knowledge on different ghost particles which have been detected. Having analyzed the obtainable information, scientists imagine that this exceptional, ultra-energetic neutrino was not a statistical phantasm.
However The place Did It Come From?
Simply as a rock can’t describe the character of a mountain, a 220 PeV neutrino alone isn’t helpful in explaining the phenomenon that gave rise to it. Because the paper acknowledges, with the knowledge obtainable, it’s not doable to “draw agency conclusions on whether or not the statement hints at a brand new ultra-high-energy part within the spectrum.”
But when there have been different recordings of equally energetic neutrinos, this is able to current a considerable advance by hinting that different beforehand unseen phenomena are on the market. “It might imply we’re seeing cosmogenic neutrinos for the primary time, produced when cosmic rays interacted with the cosmic microwave background, or it might level to a brand new sort of astrophysical supply,” the examine says.
The power of the 2023 neutrino additionally suggests it might have been emitted by one of many highly effective cosmic accelerators that we’re conscious of within the universe: a gamma-ray burst or supernova, or maybe a relativistic jet—a beam of plasma emitted from the neighborhood of a black gap. In distinction, most of the neutrinos detected on Earth are atmospheric neutrinos, produced by the impression of cosmic rays hitting atoms in Earth’s environment, and are far much less energetic. They’re the identical particles, however their possible origins impression their power.
Completely different branches of science use and examine neutrinos for various causes. As a result of neutrinos journey by means of the universe with out being deflected or absorbed, they will present useful details about very distant cosmic occasions. Some scientists consider them as “reporters from the universe” who, every now and then, journey to Earth with information that might in any other case be misplaced.
This story initially appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
