Neutrino's have mass, what's next?

[luckyme]

[ QUOTE ]
Physicists have confirmed that neutrinos, which are thought to have played a key role during the creation of the Universe, have mass.

[/ QUOTE ] BBC site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4862112.stm)

The article doesn't comment on whether this mass would account for the 'missing mass' in the universe. It does comment that the Standard Model needs a reworking.

any comments? luckyme

[MelchyBeau]

This was discovered in 1998 through the Super-Kamiokande in 1998.

[Go Blue]

[ QUOTE ]
This was discovered in 1998 through the Super-Kamiokande in 1998.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know what that is, but is that that massive underground neutrino detector that they built a few years ago? In any event, it was shown that neutrinos don't travel at the speed of light, as was previously thought. So then, they would hae HAD to have mass...I think.

[luckyme]

[ QUOTE ]
This was discovered in 1998 through the Super-Kamiokande in 1998.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I suspect it was the strength of the evidence confirming those experiments and confirming evidence that they transform into other neutrinos that makes this important ( flavour oscillation) ??

I was hoping to see some info on the 'missing matter' aspect. Guess I'll have to do more searching.

thanks, luckyme

[MelchyBeau]

[ QUOTE ]


I don't know what that is, but is that that massive underground neutrino detector that they built a few years ago? In any event, it was shown that neutrinos don't travel at the speed of light, as was previously thought. So then, they would hae HAD to have mass...I think.

[/ QUOTE ]

Super-K is essentially a big water tank with a bunch of photomultiplier tubes.

You might be thinking of the experiment in South Dakota, in the Homestake Mine. There are other experiments such as this as well.

Melch

[Metric]

I don't believe that neutrino mass is sufficient to patch up cosmology, which is currently in a terrible state theoretically -- something like 90% of the mass is in unaccounted for "dark matter," which is in turn dominated by the poorly understood "dark energy."

[Rhett]

Here is a picture of the poor saps who have to clean the detectors while they fill it up with water:
http://boojum.as.arizona.edu/~jill/NS102_2004/Lectures/Lecture26/15-12a.jpg