That is elastic scattering, not decay.Wledig said:In decay processes ... such as: $$\bar{\nu}_\mu + e \rightarrow \bar{\nu}_\mu + e$$
I had a vague idea of how things could work out, let me see if it's what you're suggesting. If we bombard an atom with muon antineutrinos we ought to observe electrons being scattered out of it, which would give an indirect confirmation for the existence of the ##Z^0## boson. Is that it? No hope for direct observation then, I believe? Or at least not in processes like this?Vanadium 50 said:An electron shooting out from an atom.
Orodruin said:That is elastic scattering, not decay.
Indirect confirmation of the existence of something like the Z and for the existence of neutrinos.Wledig said:I had a vague idea of how things could work out, let me see if it's what you're suggesting. If we bombard an atom with muon antineutrinos we ought to observe electrons being scattered out of it, which would give an indirect confirmation for the existence of the ##Z^0## boson. Is that it? No hope for direct observation then, I believe? Or at least not in processes like this?
Yes, interaction is the right term. A decay needs to start with a single particle.Sure. But the weak neutral boson is the mediator of the interaction, right? Or am I getting something wrong?
Neutral currents were discovered in accelerator experiments, not through neutrino interactions. Being neutral, you will never really see Z interactions with a detector. It also has a very short lifetime. What you see in accelerators when you produce on-shell Zs is a peak in the invariant mass distribution of the decay products.Wledig said:I had a vague idea of how things could work out, let me see if it's what you're suggesting. If we bombard an atom with muon antineutrinos we ought to observe electrons being scattered out of it, which would give an indirect confirmation for the existence of the ##Z^0## boson. Is that it? No hope for direct observation then, I believe? Or at least not in processes like this?
That's a really nice signature, luckily. Here is a graph, dots are measurements.Orodruin said:What you see in accelerators when you produce on-shell Zs is a peak in the invariant mass distribution of the decay products.
Orodruin said:Neutral currents were discovered in accelerator experiments, not through neutrino interactions.
Agreed, I should have formulated that more carefully.Vanadium 50 said:Neutral currents were discovered in accelerator experiments, notthrough neutrino interactions.
They were discovered in 1973 by the Gargamelle experiment at CERN, via a process similar to described in post #2. The Z, on the other hand, was discovered by colliders. While in principle, one could use the sort of measurement as described in #2 to determine the mass of the Z, it requires impractically precise measurements and/or impractically high energy beams to measure the Z mass this way.
Neutral currents are a type of electric current that flows through a circuit without any net charge. This means that the current is made up of equal amounts of positive and negative charges, resulting in a net charge of zero.
Neutral currents can be detected using specialized equipment called current transformers, which measure the magnetic field created by the current. The current transformer is placed around the conductor carrying the current, and the resulting magnetic field is converted into an electric signal that can be measured.
Detecting neutral currents is important for understanding and monitoring the flow of electricity in power systems. It can help identify imbalances or faults in the system, and ensure that the system is operating safely and efficiently.
Neutral currents are different from other types of currents, such as direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC), because they do not have a specific direction of flow. Instead, they flow in both directions simultaneously, resulting in a net charge of zero.
In most cases, neutral currents are not harmful as they do not carry a significant amount of energy. However, in some situations, such as when there is a fault in the system, neutral currents can become imbalanced and cause damage to equipment or even pose a safety hazard. This is why it is important to monitor and detect neutral currents in power systems.