Neutrino: Difference between revisions

Another important use of the neutrino is in the observation of [[supernova]]e, the explosions that end the lives of highly massive stars. The core collapse phase of a supernova is an extremely dense and energetic event. It is so dense that no known particles are able to escape the advancing core front except for neutrinos. Consequently, supernovae are known to release approximately 99% of their [[radiant energy]] in a short (10-second) burst of neutrinos.<ref name=Minkel-2009-07-17-ν-gunsmoke/> These neutrinos are a very useful probe for core collapse studies.

 

 

The study of neutrinos is important in [[particle physics]] because neutrinos typically have the lowest rest mass among massive particles (i.e. the lowest non-zero rest mass, i.e. excluding the zero rest mass of photons and gluons), and hence are examples of the lowest-energy massive particles theorized in extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics.