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Hi guys, I have a basic question about neutrinos. Since it is now supposed from both cosmological and particle physics observations that neutrinos have a small rest mass, what are the lowest energy (and hence lowest speed) neutrinos we can/have observed?
Since they are so weakly interacting (and hence do not readily 'lose' energy) and most that we observe come from the Sun (nearby), I'm assuming that we only observe relativistic neutrinos.
Would it be possible (or make any sense) to study non-relativistic neutrinos? Or is the rest mass so small that even if a neutrino could someone be slowed to rest, the slightest force on them would cause them to be accelerated back to relativistic speeds.
Do my questions even make sense in this context?
Since they are so weakly interacting (and hence do not readily 'lose' energy) and most that we observe come from the Sun (nearby), I'm assuming that we only observe relativistic neutrinos.
Would it be possible (or make any sense) to study non-relativistic neutrinos? Or is the rest mass so small that even if a neutrino could someone be slowed to rest, the slightest force on them would cause them to be accelerated back to relativistic speeds.
Do my questions even make sense in this context?