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Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein Effect
The Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein effect (often referred to as the ''matter effect'') is a particle physics process which modifies neutrino oscillations in matter of varying density. The MSW effect is broadly analogous to the differential retardation of sound waves in density-variable media, however it also involves the propagation dynamics of three separate quantum fields which experience distortion. In free space, the separate rates of neutrino eigenstates lead to standard neutrino flavor oscillation. Within matter – such as within the Sun – the analysis is more complicated, as shown by Mikheyev, Smirnov and Wolfenstein. It leads to a wide admixture of emanating neutrino flavors, which provides a compelling solution to the solar neutrino problem. Works in 1978 and 1979 by American physicist Lincoln Wolfenstein led to understanding that the oscillation parameters of neutrinos are changed in matter. In 1985, the Soviet physicists Stanislav Mikheyev and Alexei Smirnov pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Particle Physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and bosons (force-carrying particles). There are three generations of fermions, but ordinary matter is made only from the first fermion generation. The first generation consists of up and down quarks which form protons and neutrons, and electrons and electron neutrinos. The three fundamental interactions known to be mediated by bosons are electromagnetism, the weak interaction, and the strong interaction. Quarks cannot exist on their own but form hadrons. Hadrons that contain an odd number of quarks are called baryons and those that contain an even number are called mesons. Two baryons, the proton and the neutron, make up most of the mass of ordinary matter. Mesons are unstable and the longest-lived last for only a few hundredths of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamiltonian (quantum Mechanics)
Hamiltonian may refer to: * Hamiltonian mechanics, a function that represents the total energy of a system * Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics), an operator corresponding to the total energy of that system ** Dyall Hamiltonian, a modified Hamiltonian with two-electron nature ** Molecular Hamiltonian, the Hamiltonian operator representing the energy of the electrons and nuclei in a molecule * Hamiltonian (control theory), a function used to solve a problem of optimal control for a dynamical system * Hamiltonian path, a path in a graph that visits each vertex exactly once * Hamiltonian group, a non-abelian group the subgroups of which are all normal * Hamiltonian economic program, the economic policies advocated by Alexander Hamilton, the first United States Secretary of the Treasury See also * Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757–1804), American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the US * Hamilton (other) Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resonance
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillating force is applied at a resonant frequency of a dynamic system, the system will oscillate at a higher amplitude than when the same force is applied at other, non-resonant frequencies. Frequencies at which the response amplitude is a relative maximum are also known as resonant frequencies or resonance frequencies of the system. Small periodic forces that are near a resonant frequency of the system have the ability to produce large amplitude oscillations in the system due to the storage of vibrational energy. Resonance phenomena occur with all types of vibrations or waves: there is mechanical resonance, orbital resonance, acoustic resonance, electromagnetic resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron spin resonance (ESR) and reso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flavor (particle Physics)
In particle physics, flavour or flavor refers to the ''species'' of an elementary particle. The Standard Model counts six flavours of quarks and six flavours of leptons. They are conventionally parameterized with ''flavour quantum numbers'' that are assigned to all subatomic particles. They can also be described by some of the family symmetries proposed for the quark-lepton generations. Quantum numbers In classical mechanics, a force acting on a point-like particle can only alter the particle's dynamical state, i.e., its momentum, angular momentum, etc. Quantum field theory, however, allows interactions that can alter other facets of a particle's nature described by non dynamical, discrete quantum numbers. In particular, the action of the weak force is such that it allows the conversion of quantum numbers describing mass and electric charge of both quarks and leptons from one discrete type to another. This is known as a flavour change, or flavour transmutation. Due to their q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Super-Kamiokande
Super-Kamiokande (abbreviation of Super-Kamioka Neutrino Detection Experiment, also abbreviated to Super-K or SK; ja, スーパーカミオカンデ) is a neutrino observatory located under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is located underground in the Mozumi Mine in Hida's Kamioka area. The observatory was designed to detect high-energy neutrinos, to search for proton decay, study solar and atmospheric neutrinos, and keep watch for supernovae in the Milky Way Galaxy. It consists of a cylindrical stainless steel tank about in height and diameter holding 50,000 metric tons (55,000 US tons) of ultrapure water. Mounted on an inside superstructure are about 13,000 photomultiplier tubes that detect light from Cherenkov radiation. A neutrino interaction with the electrons or nuclei of water can produce an electron or positron that moves faster than the speed of light in water, which is slower than the speed of light in a vacuum. This creates a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was a neutrino observatory located 2100 m underground in Vale's Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The detector was designed to detect solar neutrinos through their interactions with a large tank of heavy water. The detector was turned on in May 1999, and was turned off on 28 November 2006. The SNO collaboration was active for several years after that analyzing the data taken. The director of the experiment, Art McDonald, was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015 for the experiment's contribution to the discovery of neutrino oscillation. The underground laboratory has been enlarged into a permanent facility and now operates multiple experiments as SNOLAB. The SNO equipment itself was being refurbished for use in the SNO+ experiment. Experimental motivation The first measurements of the number of solar neutrinos reaching the Earth were taken in the 1960s, and all experiments prior to SNO observed a third to a ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weak Isospin
In particle physics, weak isospin is a quantum number relating to the weak interaction, and parallels the idea of isospin under the strong interaction. Weak isospin is usually given the symbol or , with the third component written as or . It can be understood as the eigenvalue of a charge operator. is more important than and typically the term "weak isospin" may refer to the "3rd component of weak isospin". The weak isospin conservation law relates to the conservation of T_3; weak interactions conserve . It is also conserved by the electromagnetic and strong interactions. However, interaction with the Higgs field does ''not'' conserve , as directly seen by propagation of fermions, mixing chiralities by dint of their mass terms resulting from their Higgs couplings. Since the Higgs field vacuum expectation value is nonzero, particles interact with this field all the time even in vacuum. Interaction with the Higgs field changes particles' weak isospin (and weak hypercharge). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muon Neutrino
The muon neutrino is an elementary particle which has the symbol () and zero electric charge. Together with the muon it forms the second generation of leptons, hence the name muon neutrino. It was discovered in 1962 by Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger. The discovery was rewarded with the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics. Discovery The muon neutrino or "neutretto" was hypothesized to exist by a number of physicists in the 1940s. The first paper on it may be Shoichi Sakata and Takesi Inoue's two-meson theory of 1942, which also involved two neutrinos. In 1962 Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger proved the existence of the muon neutrino in an experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This earned them the 1988 Nobel Prize. Speed In September 2011 OPERA researchers reported that muon neutrinos were apparently traveling at faster than light speed. This result was confirmed again in a second experiment in November 2011. These results wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electron Neutrino
The electron neutrino () is an elementary particle which has zero electric charge and a spin of . Together with the electron, it forms the first generation of leptons, hence the name electron neutrino. It was first hypothesized by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930, to account for missing momentum and missing energy in beta decay, and was discovered in 1956 by a team led by Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines (see Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment). Proposal In the early 1900s, theories predicted that the electrons resulting from beta decay should have been emitted at a specific energy. However, in 1914, James Chadwick showed that electrons were instead emitted in a continuous spectrum. : → + :The early understanding of beta decay In 1930, Wolfgang Pauli theorized that an undetected particle was carrying away the observed difference between the energy, momentum, and angular momentum of the initial and final particles.Niels Bohr was notably opposed to this interpretation of beta decay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Potential
The electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount of work energy needed to move a unit of electric charge from a reference point to the specific point in an electric field. More precisely, it is the energy per unit charge for a test charge that is so small that the disturbance of the field under consideration is negligible. Furthermore, the motion across the field is supposed to proceed with negligible acceleration, so as to avoid the test charge acquiring kinetic energy or producing radiation. By definition, the electric potential at the reference point is zero units. Typically, the reference point is earth or a point at infinity, although any point can be used. In classical electrostatics, the electrostatic field is a vector quantity expressed as the gradient of the electrostatic potential, which is a scalar quantity denoted by or occasionally , equal to the electric potential energy o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Refractive Index
In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refracted, when entering a material. This is described by Snell's law of refraction, , where ''θ''1 and ''θ''2 are the angle of incidence and angle of refraction, respectively, of a ray crossing the interface between two media with refractive indices ''n''1 and ''n''2. The refractive indices also determine the amount of light that is reflected when reaching the interface, as well as the critical angle for total internal reflection, their intensity ( Fresnel's equations) and Brewster's angle. The refractive index can be seen as the factor by which the speed and the wavelength of the radiation are reduced with respect to their vacuum values: the speed of light in a medium is , and similarly the wavelength in that medium is , where ''Π... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
