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A total solar eclipse, with the sun’s corona visible. Credit: picgr/Pixabay
Research at Hokkaido University has shown that rare particles called neutrinos can interact with photons, the fundamental particles of light and other electromagnetic radiation, in unprecedented ways. The findings from Kenzo Ishikawa, Professor Emeritus at Hokkaido University, and his colleague Yutaka Tobita, a lecturer at Hokkaido University of Science, were published in the journal. Physics is on.
“Our results are important for understanding the mechanical interactions of other fundamental particles,” Ishikawa said. “They may help reveal details of currently poorly understood phenomena in the Sun and other stars.”
Neutrinos are one of the most important fundamental elements of matter. They are very difficult to study because they do not interact with other particles at all. They are electrically neutral and almost weightless. However, they are very numerous, with large numbers constantly coming out of the sun and passing through the Earth, and indeed ourselves, without consequence. Learning more about neutrinos is important for testing and perhaps refining our current understanding of particle physics, known as the Standard Model.
“Under normal conditions, neutrinos will not interact with photons,” explained Ishikawa.3 km—available in a form calledplasma, which occurs around the stars.” Plasma is an ionized gas, which means that all its atoms have gained an excess or deficiency of electrons, making them negatively or positively charged ions. there are neutral atoms that can occur under everyday conditions on Earth.
The interaction described by the researchers involves a theoretical phenomenon called the electroweak Hall effect. This is the interaction of electricity and magnetism under extreme conditions where two of the most important forces of nature – the electromagnetic and the weak force – combine in a weak electric force. A theoretical concept, which is expected to work only in very high energy situations in the early universe or within collisions in particle accelerators.
The research found a mathematical explanation for this unexpected neutrino-photon interaction, known as the Lagrangian. This describes everything known about the energy states of the system.
“In addition to their contribution to our understanding of fundamental physics, our work may help explain the so-called corona heating puzzle,” said Ishikawa. “This is a long-standing mystery about how the outermost region of the sun—its corona—is at a much higher temperature than the sun. the sun’s corona.”
“We now hope to continue our work in search of a deeper understanding, especially in relation to the energy transfer between neutrinos and photons under these difficult conditions,” Ishikawa said.
More information:
Kenzo Ishikawa et al, Topological interaction of neutrinos and photons in a magnetic field – Electroweak Hall Effect, Physics is on (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.physo.2023.100174
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