Antineutrino
Antineutrino
All Good Things... (TNG episode)
<catset>Category="Leptons"</catset>In <a href="Physics">Physics</a>, <b>antineutrinos</b>, the antiparticles of <a href="Neutrino">neutrinos</a>, are <a href="Neutral">Neutral</a> particles produced in <a href="Nuclear">Nuclear</a> <a href="Beta decay">Beta decay</a>. They have a <a href="Spin (physics)">nuclear spin</a> of 1/2, and they are part of the <a href="Lepton">Lepton</a> family of particles. Antineutrinos interact with other <a href="Matter">Matter</a> only through the <a href="Gravity">gravitational</a> and <a href="Weak nuclear force">weak nuclear forces</a>, making them very difficult to detect experimentally. <a href="Neutrino oscillation">Neutrino oscillation</a> experiments indicate that antineutrinos have <a href="Mass">Mass</a>, but <a href="Beta decay">Beta decay</a> experiments constrain that mass to be very small.<p>Because antineutrinos and neutrinos are neutral particles it is possible that they are actually the same particle. Particles which have this property are known as <a href="Spinor">Majorana particles</a>. If neutrinos are indeed Majorana particles then the <a href="Double beta decay">neutrinoless double beta decay</a> process is allowed, and several experiments have been proposed to search for this process.<h2 style="margin: 0; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaaaaa; font-size: 150%;">See also</h2><ul><li><a href="Neutrino">Neutrino</a> <li> <a href="Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector">Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector</a> </ul><h2 style="margin: 0; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaaaaa; font-size: 150%;">External links</h2><ul> <li><font color=#700070> Search for neutrinoless double beta decay with enriched 76Ge in Gran Sasso 1990&#8211;2003</font> </ul><p><center><p><table width=80% cellspacing=0 style="margin:0 auto;"><tr><td align=center style=" background:#ccccff; padding: 0 0 0 50px;"> <b><a href="List of particles">Particles</a> in <a href="Physics">Physics</a> - <a href="Elementary particle">elementary particles</a></b></td><td width=50 align=right style=" background:#ccccff"><small><small></small></small></td></tr><tr><td align=center colspan=2><b><a href="Fermion">Fermions</a></b>: <a href="Quark">Quarks</a> | <a href="Lepton">Leptons</a> </td></tr><tr><td align=center colspan=2>Quarks: <a href="Up quark">Up</a> | <a href="Down quark">Down</a> | <a href="Strange quark">Strange</a> | <a href="Charm quark">Charm</a> | <a href="Bottom quark"> Bottom</a> | <a href="Top quark">Top</a></td></tr><tr><td align=center colspan=2>Leptons: <a href="Electron">Electron</a> | <a href="Muon">Muon</a> | <a href="Tauon">Tau</a> | <a href="Neutrino">Neutrinos</a></td></tr><tr><td align=center colspan=2><b><a href="Gauge boson">Gauge bosons</a></b>: <a href="Photon">Photon</a> | <a href="W and Z bosons">W and Z bosons</a> | <a href="Gluon">Gluons</a></td></tr><tr><td align=center colspan=2>Not yet observed: <a href="Higgs boson">Higgs boson</a> | <a href="Graviton">Graviton</a> | <a href="List of particles">Other hypothetical particles</a></td></tr></table><p></center>