Instant Messaging With Neutrinos 262
An anonymous reader writes "A group of scientists has for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos – nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, 'Neutrino.' From the article: 'Many have theorized about the possible uses of neutrinos in communication because of one particularly valuable property: they can penetrate almost anything they encounter. If this technology could be applied to submarines, for instance, then they could conceivably communicate over long distances through water, which is difficult, if not impossible, with present technology. And if we wanted to communicate with something in outer space that was on the far side of a moon or a planet, our message could travel straight through without impediment.'"
Dead link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dead link (Score:5, Informative)
Also here [sciencedaily.com].
Re:Dead link (Score:5, Informative)
The Science Daily article is much better; I wouldn't even bother with the ars technica one since it's short and misleading. For instance,
Neutrinos are nearly massless and travel very close to the speed of light, so they can pass through substances, including entire planets, with little disruption.
That neutrinos are nearly massless and travel close to the speed of light is not the reason they interact so little with other matter. For instance, photons are often stopped by pieces of paper yet they're massless and travel at the speed of light. Neutrinos (for whatever reason) are only affected by two of the four fundamental forces, the weak nuclear and gravity, leaving out the electromagnetic and strong nuclear forces. This limits their interactions significantly.
eventually, they could provide a stable alternative to the electromagnetic waves we use now.
The implication of replacing most current hardware with neutrino-based communication is almost certainly ludicrously optimistic. Neutrinos don't interact with other matter very often (kind of the point), so you have to send huge numbers of them to get your message heard. They're also hard to generate. The scientists actually say,
Neutrino communication systems would be much more complicated than today's systems, but may have important strategic uses.
implying that a few highly specialized communications systems might conceivably use neutrinos one day. Maybe in the future vastly improved neutrino detectors and generators could be constructed, but the sun generates large numbers of neutrinos constantly, so you'd at least have to get some filtering mechanisms or similar in place.
link of actual paper instead of press release (Score:2, Informative)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2847 [arxiv.org]
The stupid press release left off the most important number which was the communication bit rate: 0.1 bits per second.
Paper abstract: "Beams of neutrinos have been proposed as a vehicle for communications under unusual circumstances, such as direct point-to-point global communication, communication with submarines, secure communications and interstellar communication. We report on the performance of a low-rate communications link established using the NuMI beam line and the MINERvA detector at Fermilab. The link achieved a decoded data rate of 0.1 bits/sec with a bit error rate of 1% over a distance of 1.035 km, including 240 m of earth. "
Re:Receiver works how? (Score:5, Informative)
If neutrinos can pass through thousands of miles of solid rock without apparently being affected by it, how are you going to make a receiving antenna of any practical size?
Well we know from the FTL neutrino saga that it can be done. The idea I believe is that if the beam can be focused enough you make up for it by sending a massive quantity of neutrinos and hoping that just one of them hits... A bit like a telescope taking a picture with exposure times on order of minutes to hours.
For the neutrino sources on earth I forget exactly how it works but the signature you get in the detector registers a double hit that allows you to separate it from noise of other sources so these things don't need to be burried under thousands of feet of rock either as they are normally.
Some crucial details left out (Score:5, Informative)
Some crucial details were left out.
The "transmitter" uses the Fermilab accelerator ring to generate neutrinos. 6km of particle accelerator.
The "receiver" is a neutrino detector the size of a large house.
The data rate is so low that it took 20 minutes to transmit one word.
Neutrinos still interact with other particles very infrequently. These researchers have no way around that. They just used a very powerful beam and a huge detector to pick up the very rare events. It's a stunt, not an advance.
Re:Dead link (Score:5, Informative)
Somehow I don't believe sending Morse code by rapidly turning on and off the reactor is a feasable way of communication
Re:Will Neutrinos collide with other Neutrinos? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Receiver works how? (Score:2, Informative)
It is not the neutrinos in themselves that give of Cherenkov radiation: as pointed out, Cherenkov radiation occurs when _electrically charged_ particles moves faster than light in a medium. Instead, in the large neutrinodetectors, it is the electrically charged by-products of the neutrinos reactions with particles in the detector medium that will get a velocity >c_m and will emit Cherenkov radiation.
If neutrinos by themselves would have given out Cherenkov radiation, they would have been easy-peasy to detect (also, it would imply that they were electrically charged, and thus even more easily detected, and not neutrinos at all :-) ).
Re:Will Neutrinos collide with other Neutrinos? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't know about neutrino generation but the receiving end has its own limitations [wikipedia.org]
the article talks about submarines and satellites, with the mass of current high efficiency neutrino detectors I'd say more like underwater city and moon colony. Also everything near or outside the atmosphere would have to deal with a hell of a lot noise...
Still, underground comms. Why not? It sure can become much more efficient than the idiotic cables that build the Internet today. Also judging from technology's progress it should be only about a couple of decades before you can walk around with a pocketable, battery powered neutrino I/O device. then were talking.