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Flavour switching solves riddle of missing neutrinos

Nature volume 411, page 877 (2001)Cite this article

The Sun mainly emits electron neutrinos, but the particles also come in two other 'flavours', known as tau and muon neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are primarily sensitive to electron neutrinos, which means the deficit could be explained if some electron neutrinos were changing into tau or muon neutrinos en route to the Earth.

SNO, a joint venture between Canada, the United States and Britain, is a spherical vat containing 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, located two kilometres below ground in a mine some 300 kilometres north of Toronto (see Nature 411, 10–12; 2001). As currently configured, it can accurately measure the flux of electron neutrinos reaching the Earth. So by comparing these results with those from other detectors — which have a small sensitivity to tau and muon neutrinos — the SNO team has shown in a paper submitted to Physical Review Letters that some electron neutrinos emitted by the Sun are switching flavours.

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Notes

  1. *A News and Views article on the SNO results will appear in a future issue.

Authors
  1. Jim Giles
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Giles, J. Flavour switching solves riddle of missing neutrinos. Nature 411, 877 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35082222

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