Can neutrinos cause Cherenkov radiation?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around whether neutrinos can cause Cherenkov radiation, particularly in the context of their interactions in mediums like water. Participants explore the properties of neutrinos, their interactions, and the implications for Cherenkov radiation.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant states that Cherenkov radiation occurs when a particle moves faster than light in a medium and questions if neutrinos can achieve this in water.
  • Another participant notes that neutrinos do not possess an electric charge, which may influence their ability to produce Cherenkov radiation.
  • A participant recalls that neutrinos might indirectly cause Cherenkov radiation through interactions that produce charged particles, such as electrons.
  • One reply challenges the clarity of the previous statement, suggesting that more concrete evidence or reasoning is needed to support the claim.
  • Another participant explains that when neutrinos interact, the resulting charged particles can emit Cherenkov radiation, referencing historical experiments that detected neutrinos from Supernova 1987a.
  • A comment suggests that finding information on neutrinos and Cherenkov radiation is straightforward through online searches.
  • A participant shares personal experience related to the historical context of neutrino detection experiments, indicating familiarity with the topic.
  • One participant elaborates that charged leptons produced from neutrino interactions can emit Cherenkov radiation if they exceed the speed of light in the medium, and introduces a theoretical discussion about superluminal neutrinos and their implications for Cherenkov-like radiation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the ability of neutrinos to cause Cherenkov radiation, with some suggesting indirect effects through interactions while others emphasize the properties of neutrinos that may limit this. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the specifics of neutrino interactions and their implications for Cherenkov radiation.

Contextual Notes

There are limitations regarding the assumptions made about neutrino properties and their interactions, as well as the dependence on definitions of superluminal speeds and the conditions under which Cherenkov radiation occurs.

Ralphonsicus
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If I'm correct, Cherenkov radiation is caused when particle moves faster than light in a certain medium. Can neutrinos, say, traveling through water, cause Cherenkov radiation then? Or is there a property of neutrinos which prevents that?
 
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Neutrinos do not have an electric charge.
 
Ah yes there's a problem. But I think I remember reading that they can indirectly cause Cherenkov radiation? I think an electron was involved.
 
"I think I remember reading" is not something we can find ourselves to figure out what you are talking about. If you want to argue that the answer you got is wrong, you're going to have to do better than that.
 
When a neutrino interacts, the outgoing charged particles can produce Cherenkov radiation.

The first experiment to search for proton decay used a water Cherenkov detector. It never found any proton decay, but it turned out to be very useful for studying neutrinos. Most famously, it detected some of the neutrinos from Supernova 1987a:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jcv/imb/imbp4.html

There's a picture showing the "ring" of Cherenkov radiation produced by a positron which was in turn produced by an antineutrino interaction in the detector.
 
Also, Ralphonsicus, it's remarkably easy to find the answer to questions like this on your own. Just type "neutrino Cherenkov" into Google, and you'll come up with 1.5 million hits.
 
You got lucky that someone could make a good guess as to what you were asking about. I was in grad school at Michigan while that experiment was being built. I heard a lot about it when that group gave colloquia to report on their progress, so it came to my mind immediately when I saw "neutrino" and "Cherenkov" together.
 
The by products of neutrino interactions (charged leptons) emit Cherenkov radiation when they have speed > speed of light in the medium they propagate.
NOW, if you want to discuss Cherenkov radiation in vacuo of apparent superluminal neutrinos (such as those proposed by OPERA some months ago), back then the most promising theoretical idea about why neutrinos should NOT be superluminal, was that if they were they would have emitted "Cherenkov-like radiation" which would shift their spectrum to lower energy values than this of the emission spectrum of theirs (Glashow and Georgi were the authors I think).
Adding up to the others , I would suggest that you try to be more specific:)
 

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