First Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Detected (phys.org) 20
Longtime Slashdot reader JoeRobe writes: Scientists associated with the Kilometer Cube Neutrino Telescope, or KM3NeT, have reported detection of an ultra-high energy neutrino deep in the Mediterranean sea. The neutrino reportedly had an energy of 120 million billion electron volts (1.2x10^17 eV, or 120 PeV). This is similar to the energy of ping-pong ball traveling ~5 m/s, but all that energy was packed into a single subatomic particle. According to the New York Times, "Here, squeezed into one of the tiniest flecks of matter in our universe, that energy amounted to tens of thousands of times more than what can be achieved by the world's premier particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN."
According to the authors of the Nature paper, the direction of the neutrino "is compatible with the extension of the galactic interstellar medium," but they did not find any catalogued source that would produce such a high energy neutrino, within the Milky Way or from about 40 other galaxies that could be candidates.
Phys.org describes the impressive scale of the KM3NeT detector array: "It is located at 3,450 m depth, about 80 km from the coast of Portopalo di Capo Passero, Sicily. Its 700 m high detection units (DUs) are anchored to the seabed and positioned about 100 m apart. Every DU is equipped with 18 Digital Optical Modules (DOM) each containing 31 photomultipliers (PMTs). In its final configuration, ARCA will comprise 230 DUs. The data collected are transmitted via a submarine cable to the shore station at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud. The KM3NeT/ORCA (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss) detector is optimized to study the fundamental properties of the neutrino itself. It is located at a depth of 2,450 m, about 40 km from the coast of Toulon, France. It will comprise 115 DUs, each 200 m high and spaced by 20 m. The data collected by ORCA are sent to the shore station at La Seyne Sur Mer." "This ultra-high energy neutrino may originate directly from a powerful cosmic accelerator," surmises Phys.org. "Alternatively, it could be the first detection of a cosmogenic neutrino. However, based on this single neutrino it is difficult to conclude its origin."
According to the authors of the Nature paper, the direction of the neutrino "is compatible with the extension of the galactic interstellar medium," but they did not find any catalogued source that would produce such a high energy neutrino, within the Milky Way or from about 40 other galaxies that could be candidates.
Phys.org describes the impressive scale of the KM3NeT detector array: "It is located at 3,450 m depth, about 80 km from the coast of Portopalo di Capo Passero, Sicily. Its 700 m high detection units (DUs) are anchored to the seabed and positioned about 100 m apart. Every DU is equipped with 18 Digital Optical Modules (DOM) each containing 31 photomultipliers (PMTs). In its final configuration, ARCA will comprise 230 DUs. The data collected are transmitted via a submarine cable to the shore station at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud. The KM3NeT/ORCA (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss) detector is optimized to study the fundamental properties of the neutrino itself. It is located at a depth of 2,450 m, about 40 km from the coast of Toulon, France. It will comprise 115 DUs, each 200 m high and spaced by 20 m. The data collected by ORCA are sent to the shore station at La Seyne Sur Mer." "This ultra-high energy neutrino may originate directly from a powerful cosmic accelerator," surmises Phys.org. "Alternatively, it could be the first detection of a cosmogenic neutrino. However, based on this single neutrino it is difficult to conclude its origin."
Re:a single particle (Score:4, Insightful)
this is prime territory for DOGE
I call it DOG-E based on the original meme & Elon's raping the agencies doggy style
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I can't tell if you're sarcastic about it or not.
But finding the edges of particle physics will eventually turn into a century of advancement, but it's not profitable enough for business to research.
There's weird stuff going on, we don't know what, and figuring it out will lead to some stuff that's amazingly productive but not immediately profitable.
For example GPS uses generally and special relativity.
Re: (Score:2)
Really? You can't tell?
"...figuring it out will lead to some stuff that's amazingly productive but not immediately profitable."
Perhaps, but only after it does will Musk steal it.
Location, Location, Location (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, the French Riviera is just there for the taking, and it is already developed so the U.S. needn't put any additional money in. On whose authority could the U.S. do this? In el Bunko's words, the authority of the U.S.
Editors, edit (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Editors, edit (Score:4, Informative)
I wrote TFS, but the part about the ORCA array was not in my submission. The ARCA array detected the neutrino.
Re: (Score:1)
ORCA array? Well it sounds like it served some youthful porpoises.
Re: (Score:2)
Okay thanks for TFS. I was about to cry why a ping pong ball but apparently that is on the low end. TIL Also, more fascinating is the paper says this indicates an uncatalogued super accelerator of neutrinos, likely a blazar which is supposed to be a supermassive black hole in a radio-loud galactic center shooting a beam at us collimated by magnetic fields and winds. Um, *very* happy to hear we don't get a lot of those particles ending up here. Just enough to be interesting.
Re: Editors, edit (Score:2)
I actually like the ping pong ball reference here (from NYT article), because I could imagine actually feeling a 5 m/s ping pong ball hit me. The fact that a single fundamental particle could create the same sensation (if it actually interacted with me) is amazing.
Maybe ping pong balls might not be well known. What about a raisin? This is the amount of energy of a raisin traveling 10 m/s. Or a grain of rice at 60 m/s.
Not the First but it is the Highest (Score:5, Informative)
Not Sayin But (Score:2)
This ultra-high energy neutrino may originate directly from a powerful cosmic accelerator," surmises Phys.org. "Alternatively, it could be the first detection of a cosmogenic neutrino. However, based on this single neutrino it is difficult to conclude its origin."
I didn't understand some of those words, but it sounds like a cover-up. Did this particle look like a black diamond? (Like lightning, it can be hard to see if something is going up, or coming down.)
Energy levels? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not the neutrino (Score:2)
They didn't detect a neutrino. They detected "a single muon which crossed the entire detector, inducing signals in more than one third of the active sensors. The inclination of its trajectory combined with its enormous energy provides compelling evidence that the muon originated from a cosmic neutrino interacting in the vicinity of the detector". So it hit something that spalled a muon, which has a decay time of a couple of microseconds.
Dark matter? (Score:2)
Given the energies involved, are they sure it wasn't actually some weakly interacting massive particle (aka WIMP, one of the suggestions for dark matter)?