Neutrino

DUNE will aim to study the properties of neutrinos in unprecedented detail The post US underground neutrino experiment begins cryostat installation appeared first on Physics World.

Next-generation experiments like DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande aren’t optimized for identifying matter-antimatter asymmetry, say theorists The post Quantum information reveals limits of neutrino flavour measurements appeared first on Physics World.

Mysterious particles called neutrinos constantly stream through our bodies, and scientists are now detecting incredibly powerful versions arriving from distant cosmic sources using a massive observatory buried in Antarctic ice. These elusive “ghost particles” could hold extraordinary clues about the Big Bang, extreme cosmic events, and some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

A major production milestone in a global mission to understand one of the Universe’s biggest mysteries — why

Neutrinos are funny little particles that weigh almost nothing, making them one of the universe's most elusive building blocks. They can come from objects as mundane as bananas and as exotic as supernovas—the exploding death throes of massive stars. Most neutrinos stream through space and pass through the Earth without interacting with anything.

Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are also among the most elusive. Nearly massless, they are produced by nuclear reactions in the sun, exploding stars, particle accelerators and even the decay of radioactive elements on Earth. They interact so weakly with ordinary matter that trillions pass through each person every second without leaving a trace. Studying these ghostly particles could help answer some of the biggest questions in physics, from the nature of dark matter to why matter exists at all.

Dr. Francis Halzen, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, sheds some light on the mysterious, subatomic particles that whiz through us everyday.

Author(s): Vernon BargerIf the 220 PeV KM3NeT neutrino is a two-body decay line from a long-lived dark-matter bound state, its energy fixes the relic mass, its flux the lifetime, and the lifetime the mass of the mediator that lets the relic decay: 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁶ GeV, the Majorana-mass window of unified models. Future events will test this reading against a flaring astrophysical source. [APS Open Sci. 1, 000180] Published Thu Oct 22, 2026

If you wanted a Nobel Prize, you would do well to study neutrinos. To date, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded five times to research related to neutrino detection and discovery. This year, Francis Halzen earned the Nobel "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin."

In the early Universe, neutrinos interacted strongly with other matter before some of them "decoupled." The heaviest of these decoupled neutrinos may be the solution to the matter-antimatter cosmic mystery.

Neutrinos come in three different flavors. A new study finds that neutrino flavor could play a significant role in whether a dying star becomes a supernova or collapses directly into a black hole.

Glimpses of the "gallium anomaly" were first seen in the mid-1990s, but it was first clearly discovered and stated in 2007 by neutrino physicist Carlo Giunti of Italy. The problem is simple to state but potentially very important: about 20% fewer electron neutrinos were seen to be captured by gallium nuclei than expected.

Nobel Physics Prize for IceCube For the first time since 1991, the Nobel Prize in Physics belongs to

Neutrino expert Kirsty Duffy is our podcast guest The post Francis Halzen and IceCube: why neutrinos keep attracting Nobel prizes appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Michael SchirberNeutrino astronomy and the effort to build a cubic-kilometer-sized detector at the South Pole are recognized by the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. [Physics 19, 138] Published Tue Oct 06, 2026

Francis Halzen of University of Wisconsin-Madison led development of IceCube Neutrino Observatory.

Francis Halzen is a leader in the study of neutrinos, ghostly particles from across the universe that hint at exciting new physics

The Nobel Committee for Physics said Francis Halzen’s work was instrumental to the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. The post Francis Halzen wins Nobel Prize in physics for work on mysterious ghost particles called neutrinos appeared first on Boston.com.

STOCKHOLM — Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for his efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos, tiny cosmic particles that scientists believe offer clues to how the universe evolved. “It was a great surprise and I obviously didn’t expect it,” Halzen said, speaking to the committee by phone from Italy, in a call broadcast at the news conference to announce the winner. Halzen said it was predicted before that he would win the Nobel Prize but the announcement still made him feel “strange.” “I am working on a proposal, and I hope that this prize will help getting it approved,” he said to chuckles from the audience. Halzen paved the way for a new kind of astronomy The Nobel Committee for Physics also said Halzen’s work was instrumental to the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. “Francis Halzen realized that the ice at the South Pole could visualize these neutrino messengers from cosmos,” committee member Eva Olsson said during the

Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and his discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.

As a star nears the end of its life, it faces two very different fates: It can explode as a supernova, leaving behind a neutron star, or collapse and become a black hole. What determines the outcome remains one of astrophysics' great unanswered questions.

Neutrinos are the pervasive yet intangible particles that permeate the universe, streaming through whole planets, stars, and our

Author(s): Gang Li, Chuan-Qiang Song, Feng-Jie Tang, and Jiang-Hao YuCoherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering provides crucial information for precision studies of neutrinos as well as searches for dark matter and other new physics. This paper develops a comprehensive Effective Field Theory treatment up to dimension eight which can account for new physics effects from energies above 100 GeV down to nuclear scales in a consistent manner. The authors include renormalization effects, careful power counting and matching of different theories at the appropriate scales, and possible UV completions of the effective operators. [Phys. Rev. D 114, 055032] Published Fri Sep 18, 2026

Identity-fluid particles may carry some energy out, leading to direct collapse.

The XENONnT detector glimpsed the ethereal subatomic particles that are born from the main type of fusion reaction that powers the sun.

Author(s): Zhuang Ge, Tommi Eronen, Vasile Alin Sevestrean, Ovidiu Niţescu, Sabin Stoica, Marlom Ramalho, Jouni Suhonen, Anu Kankainen, Marjut Hukkanen, Arthur Jaries, Ari Jokinen, Joel Kostensalo, Jenni Kotila, Maxime Mougeot, Iain D. Moore, Wirunchana Rattanasakuldilok, Jouni Ruotsalainen, and Marek StryjczykHigh-precision measurements of nuclear decay energies can reveal rare low-Q transitions with enhanced sensitivity to the absolute neutrino mass. Using the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap and the PI-ICR technique, the electron-capture Q value of 113 Sn was determined with an eightfold improvement in precision over the previous evaluation. Combining the new mass result with known excited states in

Debate span atomic and particle physics The post Doubts cast on ‘superradiant neutrino laser’ proposal appeared first on Physics World.

Those "Little Red Dots" discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope, galaxies that existed during the very early Universe, could be sending neutrino particles that are reaching us today.

Neutrinos are pervasive yet intangible particles that permeate the universe, streaming through whole planets, stars, and our bodies by the trillions each second. The elementary particles are often described as “ghostly” due to their near-zero mass and their elusive nature, as they have very little interaction with normal matter. Since their discovery in 1956, neutrinos have continued to surprise physicists with their unexpected properties and behaviors. For instance, the particles come in multiple “flavors” and can morph from one to the other. Neutrinos may also be their own anti-particle. And their extremely weak interactions make them close to impossible to detect. Last year, scientists seemed to add...

Sensitive new measurements suggest that monitoring can continue even when reactors are offline The post Antineutrino detector could monitor spent nuclear fuel for clandestine activity appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Ana Maria Rey, James K. Thompson, and Haoqing ZhangTwo studies find that fundamental quantum constraints rule out a previously proposed neutrino-laser scheme. [Physics 19, 120] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Author(s): Yu-Kun Lu, Hanzhen Lin (林翰桢), and Wolfgang KetterleTwo studies find that fundamental quantum constraints rule out a previously proposed neutrino-laser scheme. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 101804] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Neutrinos are pervasive yet intangible particles that permeate the universe, streaming through whole planets, stars and our bodies by the trillions each second. The elementary particles are often described as "ghostly" for their near-zero mass and elusive nature, as they have very little interaction with normal matter.

Every second, tens of billions of neutrinos produced by nuclear fusion in the sun pass through every square centimeter of Earth—and through our bodies—almost without interacting. Although they are among the most abundant particles emitted by the sun, their extremely weak interactions make detecting these elusive particles one of the greatest experimental challenges in particle physics. A number of specialized neutrino detectors are in operation around the world, exploiting the unique properties of neutrinos to investigate astrophysical phenomena.

The XENONnT experiment, in its hunt for dark matter, has detected the rare, feeble glow of neutrinos smacking into electrons

Author(s): D. S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration)The LZ collaboration reports strong evidence (4.5 σ ) for coherent elastic scattering of 8 B solar neutrinos. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 091806] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

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Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Astronomers can't see dark matter directly, but they know it's there: Its gravity shapes galaxies and the large-scale structure of the cosmos. In an effort to uncover the composition of this hidden mass, a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is pursuing evidence of particles that exist beyond the standard model of physics.

Astronomers have discovered that the jet of a distant blazar has been gravitationally lensed by an unseen source of dark matter. Led by Silke Britzen at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the team's results could prove especially important for observations of cosmic neutrinos, which are likely produced in abundance alongside a broad spectrum of electromagnetic waves in blazar jets.

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.