Neutrinos to probe nuclear structure?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the feasibility of using neutrinos to probe the structure of atomic nuclei, exploring both theoretical implications and experimental approaches. Participants consider the potential of neutrinos and other particles, such as quark-gluon plasma, in studying nuclear structure and quantum gravity effects.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant proposes that neutrinos could be useful for studying the structure of neutrons and protons due to their weak interactions and lack of electronic interaction.
  • Another participant mentions deep inelastic scattering as a relevant concept but argues that scattering experiments are unlikely to reveal quantum gravity effects due to the weakness of gravity.
  • A participant references historical work at Fermilab and CERN related to neutrino deep inelastic scattering, sharing personal experience from their Ph.D. research.
  • It is noted that in high-energy collisions, neutrons and protons behave similarly, with interactions primarily governed by the strong force rather than electric charge.
  • One participant questions whether the instantaneous dipole moment of nucleons, arising from their quark composition, could be useful for studying their motion.
  • Another participant counters the dipole moment claim, stating it would violate parity/time reversal and references experimental limits on electric dipole moments.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the utility of neutrinos for probing nuclear structure and the implications of dipole moments in nucleons. The discussion includes both supportive and critical perspectives, indicating no consensus on these points.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the dependence on specific experimental conditions and the unresolved nature of the implications of using neutrinos versus other particles for probing nuclear structure.

Rlam90
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Do you think it would be possible to use a beam of neutrinos to probe the structure of atomic nuclei? Since they do not interact electronically, they would be useful to study the structure of both neutrons and protons, either through gravitational deflection or weak interactions.

Could this also be used to study quantum gravity by analogy to electrostatic scattering in quantum electrodynamics?

*EDIT* If neutrinos couldn't be used, could a beam of quark-gluon plasma be used?
 
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You may be interested in reading about deep inelastic scattering.

Unfortunately, scattering experiments are not useful for trying to see quantum gravity effects because gravity is so weak that any effect it might have on scattering at realistic energies is utterly negligible.
 
There's been a lot of work done along these lines at Fermilab and CERN since the late 1960s or early 1970s. I worked on one of these experiments for my Ph.D. in the late '70s / early '80s.

A good phrase for Google searching is "neutrino deep inelastic scattering." For example:

http://www.nevis.columbia.edu/ccfr/index.html

This wasn't the experiment I worked on (I wasn't at Columbia), but it was about the same time and I remember reading about it and seeing presentations about it. It looks like the analysis pages are all gone from that site, but the introductory and history pages are still there.

[Ah, the duck beat me to it while I was Googling and reliving old memories.]
 
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In high-energetic collisions, neutrons and protons are not so different - the sea quarks and gluons are the same for both, and both up and down valence quarks have an electric charge (the up just has a larger value). Most interactions happen via the strong interaction, which does not care about the electric charge.
 
Okay. well, since nucleons are made of three quarks, one of which has a different electric charge, at any point in time the nucleons must have an instantaneous dipole moment, right? Can this be useful to study their motion?
 
Thanks for enlightening me. I love nature. :)
 

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