Science must make some scientists go insane when they can see something, know some of its properties and such, but you can’t empirically measure it or really prove it exists.
Well the thing is: it’s even worse!
We HAVE measured ‘the’ neutrino mass, sort of (not really).
We have an absolutely fricking tiny upper bound! For all three masses added together…
And yes, there are three separate neutrino masses just like there are sorta three ‘types’ of Neutrinos.
But the real kicker is: it is literally impossible to assign any specific mass to any specific type!!
You can either talk about the type of a neutrino OR it’s mass but not both at the same time because apparently we looked too close and quantum mechanics decided it needed to fuck with us some more to discourage further probing.
I feel like this trope should be applied to jobs outside of science. Like retail. Retail workers are just as prone to insanity and it’s up to us to make that romantic and cool in similar ways.
Also science outside of physics, like geology.
Actually we haven’t observed a difference between the speed of neutrinos and light, which sets an upper limit on their mass based on the precision of those measurements. The evidence of mass is much weirder, in the observation of neutrino flavor oscillation.
Neutrinos come in 3 flavors: electron, tau, and muon. We’ve observed that the flavor oscillates as a function of time, or equivalently as a function of distance from the neutrino source. The data is quite precise, and is perfectly explained by there being 3 neutrino mass states that are distinct from the flavor state. So a neutrino with a well defined flavor will have a superposition of the 3 mass states, with each flavor corresponding to a different admixture of mass states.
The flavor oscillations allow us to measure the difference in the mass values, but not the absolute masses. Technically it’s possible that the “lightest” neutrino is massless, and the other 2 mass states are nonzero. Without an absolute value for the masses we can’t rule this out.
As close to nothing as something can be and still exist… as far as we know.
That mass is so small, and behaves so strangely (it fluctuates), that the theories say the neutrino does NOT get its’ tiny fluctuating mass from the Higgs Field.
And if that ain’t a mind-blower of what is at the very edge of human knowledge and understanding of reality, I don’t know what is.
macarthur_park@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“Almost massless”. Neutrino masses are so small that they haven’t been measured (yet).
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
OH NEUTRINO NOT NEUTRON
jaybone@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
WHERE DID YOU COME FROM WHERE DID YOU GO
Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
WHERE DID YOU COME FROM OH NEUTRINO
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
I came from my mom and I’ve been to like 3/4ths of US states and about 20 other countries.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 weeks ago
Science must make some scientists go insane when they can see something, know some of its properties and such, but you can’t empirically measure it or really prove it exists.
“The neutrinos are just in your head, Wolfgang.”
reinei@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well the thing is: it’s even worse! We HAVE measured ‘the’ neutrino mass, sort of (not really). We have an absolutely fricking tiny upper bound! For all three masses added together… And yes, there are three separate neutrino masses just like there are sorta three ‘types’ of Neutrinos. But the real kicker is: it is literally impossible to assign any specific mass to any specific type!!
You can either talk about the type of a neutrino OR it’s mass but not both at the same time because apparently we looked too close and quantum mechanics decided it needed to fuck with us some more to discourage further probing.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 weeks ago
That’s just the debugger fixing errors in the universe simulation ;)
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 weeks ago
There are trillions going through your body every second! Trust me, bro!
TeraByteMarx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I feel like this trope should be applied to jobs outside of science. Like retail. Retail workers are just as prone to insanity and it’s up to us to make that romantic and cool in similar ways. Also science outside of physics, like geology.
FiskFisk33@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
as far as I understand, the only way we know is that we have observed that they move slower than light, and therefore must have mass
macarthur_park@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Actually we haven’t observed a difference between the speed of neutrinos and light, which sets an upper limit on their mass based on the precision of those measurements. The evidence of mass is much weirder, in the observation of neutrino flavor oscillation.
Neutrinos come in 3 flavors: electron, tau, and muon. We’ve observed that the flavor oscillates as a function of time, or equivalently as a function of distance from the neutrino source. The data is quite precise, and is perfectly explained by there being 3 neutrino mass states that are distinct from the flavor state. So a neutrino with a well defined flavor will have a superposition of the 3 mass states, with each flavor corresponding to a different admixture of mass states.
The flavor oscillations allow us to measure the difference in the mass values, but not the absolute masses. Technically it’s possible that the “lightest” neutrino is massless, and the other 2 mass states are nonzero. Without an absolute value for the masses we can’t rule this out.
niktemadur@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As close to nothing as something can be and still exist… as far as we know.
That mass is so small, and behaves so strangely (it fluctuates), that the theories say the neutrino does NOT get its’ tiny fluctuating mass from the Higgs Field.
And if that ain’t a mind-blower of what is at the very edge of human knowledge and understanding of reality, I don’t know what is.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
really? I thought it was the same as a proton.
porl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’re thinking of a neutron. They are from memory a tiny bit heavier than a proton. Neutrinos are tiny.