What Are Neutrino Oscillations and Why Do They Matter in Particle Physics?

[helpme2011]

I need to choose a topic from any theories from quantum physics and write an essay about 500-1000 words and present it to the class. Because this assignment is for summer school, my teacher doesn't want it to be too complicated but at the same time interesting enough for a 10 minute presentation. This assignment is an independent study.

Any suggestions? I was going to choose Grand Unification Theory but there's way too much to say and not specific enough. Or even the Wave Particle Duality??

 

[davidj89]

ya do something about wave Particle Duality. You can really trip some people out with the idea of observation and how it really does change things, plus you can tac some stuff about quantum tunneling if you need more material which is also very interesting and is a product of the subject.
This is mildly lame but my QM teacher gave it to us and it is pretty informative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc&feature=related

 

[helpme2011]

WOWWWW that video just blew my mind! Pretty awesome actually xD. thankss!

 

[helpme2011]

Bad news...someone in my class has already chose that topic :( any other suggestions? string theory, black hole and photoelectric effect are also taken...

 

[Mike Pemulis]

My suggestion: neutrino oscillations. As background, you can talk about what a neutrino is, the history of neutrinos in 20th-century physics (starting with beta decay and culminating with incorporation of neutrinos into the Standard Model), and the various neutrino detectors that have been built. Then discuss the solar neutrino problem, and how it was explained in terms of neutrino oscillations (which very surprisingly imply nonzero neutrino masses). Finally, discuss some current or planned neutrino experiments. That should be more than enough for a presentation.

I didn't really explain any of those terms, but Google and Wikipedia should give you some good stuff. Best of all, some of the relevant math, like the formula that describes the neutrino flavor oscillations as a function of time, may be accessible to your audience; it's always good if you can mix some real math into a qualitative discussion.