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) an ...

, the Glashow resonance is the resonant formation of the

W boson In particle physics, the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction; the respective symbols are , , and ...

antineutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is ...

-electron collisions: + → .

History

The resonance was proposed by

Sheldon Glashow Sheldon Lee Glashow (, ; born December 5, 1932) is a Nobel Prize-winning American theoretical physicist. He is the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University and Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Harvard U ...

in 1959.

Theory

The threshold antineutrino energy for this process (for the electron at rest in the laboratory frame) is given by the formula :

E_\nu = \frac \approx \frac

(here is, for completeness, included also the antineutrino mass, which vanishes in the Standard model), which gives 6.3

PeV PEV or PeV may refer to: * Ecologist Party "The Greens" (), a Portuguese eco-socialist political party * Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland (), a Protestant Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland * Petaelectronvolt (PeV), a mea ...

, a huge energy for a fundamental particle. This process is considered for the detection and studies of high-energy cosmic neutrinos at the IceCube experiment, at the ANTARES neutrino telescope, and at the KM3NeT neutrino telescope.

Detection

A report observing the resonance at 2.3 σ level has been made by the IceCube experiment in March 2021.

References

Electroweak theory Neutrino astronomy Hypothetical processes {{Particle-stub