Neutrino

A global constellation of neutrino detectors is creating a never-before-seen view of the radioactive elements that power Earth’s tectonic heat engine. The post Neutrinos From Deep Inside Earth Provide a New Picture of the Mantle first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Even when the lights go out and nuclear reactors are turned off, the story inside the reactor core still has a great deal to tell. Radioactive, long-lived fission products continue to decay for months or even years, producing a faint flux of a specific type of particle known as antineutrinos. (Anti)neutrinos are the lightest and most elusive known particles in the universe, allowing them to escape unhindered from both the reactor and the surrounding shielding.

Author(s): T. Abrahão et al. (Double Chooz Collaboration)Spent nuclear fuel and shutdown nuclear reactors emit antineutrinos, which nuclear watchdogs could use for real-time monitoring of plants. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 061803] Published Tue Aug 04, 2026

The universe is haunted by "cosmic ghosts" called neutrinos, which seem to be the "whispers" of stars that died in supernova explosions over the course of billions of years.

Physicists at the University of California, Irvine, have developed an artificial intelligence system that can autonomously design theoretical physics models, a task traditionally carried out by human theorists. The approach allows researchers to explore large, uncharted areas of particle physics theory, helping identify promising new explanations for the behavior of neutrinos.

Non-intrusive technique could enable round-the-clock, offsite monitoring of reactor operations The post Antineutrino detectors could spot signs that a fusion reactor is producing weapons-grade plutonium appeared first on Physics World.

Neutrinos: They have no electric charge, pass through matter like a ghost and are so light they were initially thought to have zero mass. These are just some of the traits that make them so difficult to detect. Research on neutrinos requires massive underground observatories far from potential confounders that drown out their weak signals. One of the largest in the world, located 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) underground in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, is called Super-Kamiokande.

A philosopher has put forward an argument for rethinking how particles are defined within the standard model of particle physics

Peering far into the distant, high-redshift universe, the James Webb telescope has discovered an abundance of small red galaxies known as the Little Red Dots. From their observations, astronomers believe that at least some of these galaxies may be home to growing supermassive black holes at their centers, objects which they believe are embedded in dense gaseous envelopes, an environment suitable for producing high-energy neutrinos.

On September 22, 2021, the IceCube Neutrino Detector in Antarctica caught a blast of neutrinos as it passed through the solar system. These neutrinos were remarkably high-energy and came from a galaxy 11 billion light-years away. That's a period of the Universe's history known as "Cosmic Noon". It's when star formation in galaxies was at its most active and that provided an interesting clue to their origin. The source of the neutrinos was nicknamed "Shadow Blaster" because the event that created the neutrinos was hidden by a dense cloud of dust, which made it invisible to optical observations.

Hamamatsu Photonics has provided an update into its involvement in a project that aims to detect faint flashes of light produced by neutrino interactions in Antarctic ice. The company's announcement, regarding the IceCube initiative upgrade at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, is focused on newly installed sensor strings. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a large-scale scientific facility embedded in approximately one cubic kilometer of exceptionally clear Antarctic ice. In detecting the faint flashes of light produced by neutrino interactions, it aims to help researchers investigate fundamental questions in astrophysics. A multi-photomultiplier tube digital optical module (mDOM) is...

The hunt for these ghostly particles has required some of the most audacious experiment setups ever built. The post How Physicists Track and Trap the Elusive Neutrino first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Author(s): Guang Yang and Praveen KumarThis study investigates the potential of electron–proton scattering at the Electron–Ion Collider to constrain the neutrino–nucleon axial form factor with unprecedented precision. By exploiting a free-proton target, the proposed measurements largely avoid nuclear-model uncertainties and offer a promising avenue for advancing the precision frontier of neutrino interaction physics. [Phys. Rev. D 113, 116031] Published Mon Jun 22, 2026

A distant galaxy nicknamed Shadow Blaster may have revealed a surprising source of cosmic neutrinos: extreme star formation instead of a supermassive black hole. The discovery suggests that hidden, dust-filled starburst galaxies could account for a significant fraction of the Universe’s high-energy neutrinos.

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"If confirmed, Shadow Blaster would be the first-ever individual dusty star-forming galaxy directly linked to a high-energy neutrino event."

Gemini North telescope on Maunakea helps uncover strongest evidence yet that distant star-forming galaxies contribute to the production of one of the Universe’s most mysterious ghost particles.

Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles of the universe. They live a ghostly existence with no electric charge, very little mass and extremely few interactions with matter. They are also the most abundant particles with mass in the universe and can be created through a variety of processes, such as the decay of heavy particles, nuclear reactions in the sun and the explosions of stars.

Deep beneath the ground in China, the massive JUNO neutrino observatory has delivered its first major scientific breakthrough, achieving one of the most precise measurements yet of how elusive neutrinos change as they travel. Using just 59 days of data, researchers sharply improved measurements of key neutrino properties, boosting confidence that JUNO can tackle one of particle physics' biggest mysteries: determining the true mass hierarchy of neutrinos.

Author(s): Guillermo Franco AbellánA disagreement over neutrino-mass estimates might be resolved by assuming that neutrinos decay into hypothetical massless particles. [Phys. Rev. D 113, 123527] Published Thu Jun 11, 2026

Author(s): Michael SchirberA disagreement over neutrino-mass estimates might be resolved by assuming that neutrinos decay into hypothetical massless particles. [Physics 19, s72] Published Thu Jun 11, 2026

A massive underground detector aimed at understanding the mysterious ghost particles in our universe released its first major results on Wednesday.

Author(s): Alexander Glaser, Robert J. Goldston, and Patrick HuberResearch and development of fusion energy has recently gained a strong impetus from private investment. While less of a proliferation risk than conventional fission systems, modified fusion systems could produce material usable in nuclear weapons. This paper examines an innovative use of antineutrino detectors to find misuse of fusion systems. Since antineutrinos are so penetrating, this technique carries near-zero interference with fusion energy system operation. [Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 064004] Published Tue Jun 02, 2026

A new study published in Physical Review Letters by the IceCube Collaboration reports evidence that the energy spectrum of astrophysical neutrinos is not a simple straight line.

The most energetic "ghost particle" neutrino ever detected may have been blasted at Earth by blazars, suggesting that these events and their black hole engines are powerful cosmic particle accelerators.

A mysterious particle from deep space has scientists buzzing after the most energetic neutrino ever detected slammed through the Mediterranean Sea. Now, researchers think they may have identified the cosmic “culprits” behind it: blazars — supermassive black holes blasting jets of matter straight toward Earth.

Neutrinos, the second most common fundamental particles in the universe, are notoriously difficult to detect. So far we’ve only been able to do so by building giant vats of water far underground with hundreds of photodetectors watching for brief flashes of light. But a new CubeSat mission hopes to change that dynamic and enable the neutrino detectors of the future a much less constrained and expensive existence - in space.

While neutrinos are some of the most abundant particles in the universe, they remain among the least understood. One of the biggest puzzles is their mass: although experiments have shown that neutrinos must have some mass, pinning down exactly how much has proven extraordinarily difficult.

Despite being so elusive, neutrinos are produced in abundance in some of the most violent events in the universe. One of their strangest properties is that they can spontaneously switch between three types, or "flavors": a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation that remains poorly understood in extreme astrophysical environments.

Author(s): Christopher G. TullyNew density-functional-theory calculations describe the radioactive decay of tritium bound to graphene, offering a way to model experiments that could open cleaner windows onto neutrino mass. [Physics 19, 67] Published Wed May 13, 2026

The world's first space-based neutrino detector launched to space this month to study elusive neutrino particles that constantly bombard Earth.

Author(s): Ryuichiro Akaho, Hiroki Nagakura, Wakana Iwakami, Shun Furusawa, Akira Harada, Hirotada Okawa, Hideo Matsufuru, Kohsuke Sumiyoshi, and Shoichi YamadaBy incorporating a detailed model of neutrino-flavor oscillations in simulations of collapsing stars, researchers have shown that the phenomenon can both promote and inhibit supernovae. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 191002] Published Mon May 11, 2026

Author(s): Martin ObergaulingerBy incorporating a detailed model of neutrino-flavor oscillations in simulations of collapsing stars, researchers have shown that the phenomenon can both promote and inhibit supernovae. [Physics 19, 66] Published Mon May 11, 2026

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will study nature’s most mysterious particle a mile beneath South Dakota’s Black Hills, and potentially reveal the origins of matter

When complete in 2031, DUNE-LBNF will study the properties of neutrinos The post Officials hail ‘major milestone’ for US Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment appeared first on Physics World.

New analyses by the IceCube observatory could help scientists understand where neutrinos form and what is producing them The post Gap in neutrino energy spectrum raises questions about cosmic environments appeared first on Physics World.

In the exotic world of particle physics, neutrinos may be the most mysterious members. They rarely interact with other matter, have almost no mass, and have no electrical charge. These characteristics make them extremely difficult to study. Even detecting them requires specialized facilities in deep caves, in thick Antarctic ice, or on the ocean floor.

Some innovations in physics come from entirely new technologies, others from fresh theoretical insights. Others still take shape by bringing together existing tools in new ways, working out how to combine them to outperform other solutions. The branch of particle physics that studies weakly interacting particles—such as neutrinos and some types of dark-matter candidates—could use innovative detection approaches: technological challenges in this research area quickly become practical as well as economic, as increases in detector volume and spatial resolution improve the sensitivity to the processes producing the particles of interest. Similarly, demanding targets on instrument capability apply to the calorimeters used in collider experiments.

Neutrinos are very difficult to detect. And when they are detected, pinpointing their sources is likewise difficult. New research shows that the most energetic neutrino ever detected must have had an extraordinarly energetic source. It could even be primordial.

Buried within the Antarctic ice are more than 5,000 light sensors that work together to detect some of the highest energy particles in the universe. These tiny particles, called neutrinos, provide insight into the extreme cosmic events that created them as well as phenomena that challenge traditional physics.

Author(s): Philip BallA South Pole neutrino experiment has measured radio waves induced by cosmic rays—thus demonstrating that its detection method works. [Physics 19, 58] Published Fri Apr 17, 2026

A neglected force produced by neutrinos and other particles helps atomic physics measurements align with predictions of the standard model.

Author(s): Danat Issa, Beverly Lowell, Jonatan Jacquemin-Ide, Matthew Liska, and Alexander TchekhovskoyLaunching jets from collapsar black holes requires strong magnetic field and rapid rotation. However, strong fields can spin down the collapsar black holes before the jet can be launched. In this work, the authors study the effect of neutrino cooling on this jet launching process. They show that neutrino cooled disks can continue to feed angular momentum to the black hole without the opposing spin-down effect that comes from general mass accretion. Thus, the spin of the black hole remains sufficient high to launch a jet from a collapsar environment to produce a long gamma-ray burst. [Phys. Rev. D 113, 083020] Published Wed Apr 15, 2026

In 1937, Ettore Majorana asked a question nobody else was even thinking about: does a particle have to have a distinct antiparticle? For neutrinos — which carry no charge — the answer might be no. They might be their own antiparticles. Deep underground right now, experiments are watching atoms decay, waiting for the signal that would prove it. So far: nothing. But the case is not closed.

They are the most abundant particles in the universe, yet we barely know they exist. Neutrinos stream through everything, through walls, through planets and even through you…. in their billions every second, leaving no trace. We've known for decades that they have mass, but pinning down exactly how much has defeated physicists for years. Now, the most sensitive experiment ever built has pushed our knowledge to a new frontier, and what it found raises a profound question about why these ghostly particles are so extraordinarily light.

Neutrinos have mass — yet they never flip between left- and right-handed states the way every other massive particle does. The most logical fix is Paul Dirac's: invisible right-handed neutrinos that interact with nothing whatsoever. The math works. It even produces a beautiful explanation for why neutrino masses are so absurdly tiny. But it requires believing in particles that are permanently, in-principle undetectable.

The weak nuclear force is the eccentric cousin of the four forces — the one that only shakes hands with left-handed particles. That bizarre preference turns out to be absolutely critical for stars, nuclear fusion, and the existence of most matter. And neutrinos love it. There's just one problem: neutrinos appear to only exist in one handedness, which makes no sense at all.

A brilliant physicist vanished in 1938, leaving behind one strange, quiet paper. It described something that shouldn't exist: a particle that is its own antiparticle. To understand why that matters, we first need to rethink what a particle even is — and that means getting weird with chirality, the Higgs field, and the neutrino's stubborn refusal to follow the rules.

Decades of weird experimental results appeared to support the existence of the sterile neutrino, a hypothetical particle that would solve multiple mysteries. But recent experiments have killed hope of finding these phantoms, leaving physicists to wonder what might explain their anomalies. The post Experiments Ring the ‘Death Knell’ for Sterile Neutrinos first appeared on Quanta Magazine

New research suggests that neutrinos in the early universe may have transformed into a previously unknown form of radiation. A study from Washington University in St. Louis offers a new way to explain certain puzzling observations about how the universe evolved.

Researchers at Rice University recently convened an international group of scientists to explore how artificial intelligence and machine

Author(s): Michael SchirberThe IceCube observatory at the South Pole has found evidence for a break in the spectrum of cosmic neutrinos, with theoretical implications for their generation. [Physics 19, s7] Published Thu Mar 26, 2026

Author(s): R. Abbasi et al. (IceCube Collaboration)The IceCube observatory at the South Pole has found evidence for a break in the spectrum of cosmic neutrinos, with theoretical implications for their generation. [Phys. Rev. D 113, 062002] Published Thu Mar 26, 2026

Author(s): R. Abbasi et al. (IceCube Collaboration)The IceCube observatory at the South Pole has found evidence for a break in the spectrum of cosmic neutrinos, with theoretical implications for their generation. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 121002] Published Thu Mar 26, 2026

Their mass is extremely low, but how light are neutrinos really? A collaboration comprising German and international research groups has optimized its experiments to determine the mass of these "ghost particles." In doing so, they succeeded in further adjusting downward the upper limit on the neutrino mass scale that had previously been determined in similar experiments. The study is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Neutrinos are extremely lightweight and electrically neutral particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter. Due to these rare interactions, neutrinos can travel across space almost entirely unaffected, carrying information about highly energetic cosmological events, such as exploding stars or supermassive black holes.

Three years ago, a detector sitting on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea recorded a single subatomic particle carrying more energy than anything of its kind ever seen before. Where it came from has been a mystery ever since. Now, scientists working with the KM3NeT detector off the coast of Sicily think they may have found the culprit, a population of blazars, some of the most violent objects in the universe, each one powered by a supermassive black hole firing a jet of plasma directly toward Earth.

Learn how a deep-sea detector helped trace the most energetic neutrino ever detected to distant blazars.

Three years ago, in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the passage of an "ultra-energetic" cosmic neutrino was observed—the most energetic ever detected. The event drew international attention from the scientific community as well as from the media and the public, not least because the origin of this particle—whose energy exceeded that of previously observed neutrinos by more than an order of magnitude—is unknown.

An international team combining two major neutrino experiments has uncovered stronger evidence that neutrinos and antimatter don’t behave as perfect mirror images. That subtle difference may hold the key to why the universe didn’t vanish in a flash of self-destruction after the Big Bang.

The KM3NeT collaboration is a large research group involved in the operation of a neutrino telescope network in the deep Mediterranean Sea, with the aim of detecting high-energy neutrino events. These are rare and fleeting high-energy interactions between neutrinos, particles with an extremely low mass that are sometimes referred to as "ghost particles."

The name "IceCube" not only serves as the title of the experiment, but also describes its appearance. Embedded in the transparent ice of the South Pole, a three-dimensional grid of more than 5,000 extremely sensitive light sensors forms a giant cube with a volume of one cubic kilometer. This unique arrangement serves as an observatory for detecting neutrinos, the most difficult elementary particles to detect.

Since 2010, the IceCube Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station has been delivering groundbreaking measurements of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. It consists of many detectors embedded in a volume of Antarctic ice measuring approximately one cubic kilometer. IceCube has now been upgraded with new optical modules to enable it to measure lower-energy neutrinos as well. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) made a significant contribution to this expansion.

The National Science Foundation's massive IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole just got a major new upgrade, which promises to take the search for "ghost particles" to a new level.

Neutrinos are very small, neutral subatomic particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter and are thus sometimes referred to as ghost particles. There are three known types (i.e., flavors) of neutrinos, dubbed muon, electron and tau neutrinos.

A supercharged neutrino that smashed into our planet in 2023 may have been spit out by an exploding primordial black hole with a "dark charge." If true, this theory could lead to a definitive catalog of all subatomic particles and unveil the elusive identity of dark matter.

Ciaran O'Hare scribbles symbols using colored markers across his whiteboard like he's trying to solve a crime—or perhaps planning one. He bounces around the edges of the board, slowly filling it with sharp angles and curling letters. I watch on, and when he senses I'm losing track, he pauses intermittently, allowing my brain to catch up. Ciaran speaks with an easy to understand British inflection, but the language on the whiteboard might as well be hieroglyphics.

In 2023, a subatomic particle called a neutrino crashed into Earth with such a high amount of energy that it should have been impossible. In fact, there are no known sources anywhere in the universe capable of producing such energy—100,000 times more than the highest-energy particle ever produced by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator. However, a team of physicists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently hypothesized that something like this could happen when a special kind of black hole, called a "quasi-extremal primordial black hole," explodes.

Finding challenges the standard model of cosmology The post Interactions between dark matter and neutrinos could resolve a cosmic discrepancy appeared first on Physics World.

Primordial black holes could rewrite our understanding of dark matter and the early universe. A record-breaking detection at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea has some physicists wondering if we just spotted one. The post Monster Neutrino Could Be a Messenger of Ancient Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Astronomers found evidence that dark matter and neutrinos may interact, hinting at a "fundamental breakthrough" that challenges our understanding of how the universe evolved.

Neutrinos have kept scientists on their toes in the decades since they were discovered.

Every second, a trillion ghost particles stream through your body unnoticed, invisible messengers carrying secrets from the hearts of distant stars. Astrophysicists at the University of Copenhagen have now mapped exactly where these neutrinos originate across our Milky Way Galaxy and how many reach Earth, creating the most comprehensive picture yet of these elusive particles.

Scientists are a step closer to solving one of the universe's biggest mysteries as new research finds evidence that dark matter and neutrinos may be interacting, offering a rare window into the darkest recesses of the cosmos.

"WIMPs are still the leading candidate for dark matter, but billions of dollars of experiments have been done, only getting stronger and stronger upper limits, so alternative scenarios have to be considered."

Author(s): S. Abubakar et al. (The NOvA Collaboration)A decade of neutrino oscillation data leads to the most precise single-experiment measurement of the neutrino mass splitting between eigenstates 3 and 2. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 011802] Published Thu Jan 08, 2026

With contributions from Brown faculty and students, the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment analyzed the largest dataset ever collected by a

The subatomic particles are incredibly numerous. About 1,000 neutrinos from stars other than the sun pass through a thumbnail every second.

They're called ghost particles for a reason. They're everywhere—trillions of them constantly stream through everything: our bodies, our planet, even the entire cosmos. These so-called neutrinos are elementary particles that are invisible, incredibly light, and interact only rarely with other matter.

Author(s): Pablo Martínez-Miravé and Irene TamborraThe authors estimate the total theoretical Galactic stellar neutrino flux, taking into account the latest results on stellar spatial distribution and star formation history. They estimate neutrino emission for a comprehensive range of stellar masses and lifetimes, thus obtaining a key baseline result for future neutrino detections of diverse origins. [Phys. Rev. D 113, 023014] Published Wed Jan 07, 2026

Scientists are a step closer to solving one of the universe's biggest mysteries as new research finds evidence that two of its least understood components may be interacting, offering a rare window into the darkest recesses of the cosmos.

Scientists are a step closer to solving one of the universe’s biggest mysteries as new research finds evidence that two of its least understood components may be interacting, offering a rare window into the darkest recesses of the cosmos.

"If this interaction between dark matter and neutrinos is confirmed, it would be a fundamental breakthrough."

Experimental particle physicists working at the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory have found evidence against the existence of a "sterile" type of neutrino hypothesized to be responsible for previous experiments' anomalous results, as detailed in a paper published in Nature.