Has there been experimental evidence for neutrinos being affected by gravity?

In summary: So at this time, there is no observational evidence to suggest that gravity has an effect on neutrinos.
  • #1
Xilor
152
7
Hello, I was wondering if there was any experimental or observational evidence for neutrinos being affected by gravity. Be it through detected lensing or other means. All I could find were some papers on lensing none of which seemed to have actual results out of the error margin.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
Does the redshifted cosmic neutrino background count?
 
  • #3
I wasn't even aware that a cosmic background radiation was measured directly. Do you happen to have a link to a paper on it?
 
  • #4
Greetings:

I do not think that it is possible to determine such effects on neutrinos without a neutrino imager (pardon the spelling) and such a device does not currently exist. It is possible to detect individual neutrinos and their general direction using various detectors depending on the neutrino's resonant state, but you can not as yet form an image from neutrinos to determine gravitational effects on such neutrinos. Current detectors are vast to complicated depending on the resonant state. Various media include highly purified water, carbon tetrachloride, and germanium. Electron neutrinos are detected by water detectors, the largest type. I do not know if muon neutrinos or tau neutrinos are detected with the germanium type but the crystals of the detector have to be melted down for analysis. One is highly unlikely to get an image that way. And to get a useful image using neutrinos it is necessary to have some way of focusing them to form an image. Without some kind of neutrino imager or camera it will be very very difficult to determine such effects
 
  • #5
Not quite true that neutrino imagers do not exist. Look at this paper, where they were able to image the moon using the IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole. This doesn't answer the OPs question, but it is cool:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.2969
 
  • #6
Greetings Phyzguy:

I did not know of the Ice Cube neutrino telescope! Thanks for the 'heads up'!
 

1. What is a neutrino?

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that have very little mass and no electric charge. They are one of the fundamental particles that make up the universe and are created in a variety of processes, such as nuclear reactions and radioactive decay.

2. How are neutrinos affected by gravity?

Neutrinos are affected by gravity in the same way as any other particle with mass. This means that they are subject to the gravitational pull of massive objects, such as planets, stars, and galaxies.

3. Has there been experimental evidence for neutrinos being affected by gravity?

Yes, there have been multiple experiments that have provided evidence for neutrinos being affected by gravity. One notable example is the Super-Kamiokande experiment, which observed neutrinos from the Sun and found that their behavior was consistent with being affected by the Sun's gravitational pull.

4. How do scientists study the effects of gravity on neutrinos?

Scientists use a variety of methods to study the effects of gravity on neutrinos. These include observing the behavior of neutrinos in large underground detectors, measuring the energy and direction of neutrinos from cosmic sources, and performing precision calculations using theoretical models.

5. Why is it important to study the effects of gravity on neutrinos?

Studying the effects of gravity on neutrinos can provide valuable insights into the fundamental forces and interactions that govern the universe. It can also help us better understand the properties of neutrinos, which can have significant implications for our understanding of the universe and potential applications in fields such as particle physics and astrophysics.

Similar threads

  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
11
Views
1K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
12
Views
1K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
4
Replies
108
Views
8K
  • Special and General Relativity
Replies
11
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • Beyond the Standard Models
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
1
Views
2K
Back
Top