What is neutrino oscillation also explain the solar neutrino problem?

Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which a neutrino created with a specific lepton family number (“lepton flavor”: electron, muon, or tau) can later be measured to have a different lepton family number.

Which solar neutrino experiment proved that more than one type of neutrinos were detected?

Ray Davis catches solar neutrinos in underground experiment. In 1989, the Kamiokande experiment in Japan added to the confusion. The pure water detector found more neutrinos than Davis’s experiment, about half of the predicted number. But there was still the question of all those missing neutrinos.

How are solar neutrinos detected?

The only way to detect solar neutrinos is through their exceptionally rare collisions with ordinary matter. Smaller amounts of high-energy neutrinos are produced from the decay of boron 8 during a rare termination of the proton-proton chain. Different neutrino detectors are sensitive to different energy ranges (Fig.

Why are solar neutrinos important?

where the deuteron is the nucleus of deuterium. In the sun, 4 hydrogens are being fused into Helium by means of the proton-proton chain. Neutrinos are important because they allow scientists to peek into the interior of the sun and learn about the processes there.

Why is neutrino oscillation important?

Neutrino oscillation is important by itself, but also because it opens a door towards the mass of the neutrino (neutrino oscillation can happen only if neutrinos are massive), thus towards a modification of the Standard Model of particle physics.

What is the missing neutrino problem?

The solar neutrino problem concerned a large discrepancy between the flux of solar neutrinos as predicted from the Sun’s luminosity and as measured directly. When neutrino detectors became sensitive enough to measure the flow of electron neutrinos from the Sun, the number detected was much lower than predicted.

Who solved the solar neutrino problem?

In 2002, results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, nearly 2,100 metres (6,900 feet) underground in the Creighton nickel mine near Sudbury, Ont., showed that the solar neutrinos did change their type and thus that the neutrino had a small mass. These results solved the solar neutrino problem.