Scientists have been studying neutrinos for a long time using detectors on balloons flying over Antarctica. A surprising anomaly in the behavior of one of their types has recently been discovered, for which there is still no scientific explanation.
Anomaly over Antarctica
There is an anomaly above Antarctica related to the distribution of tau neutrinos. This was reported by scientists studying these particles using ANITA located on balloons. The article was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Neutrinos are almost weightless and neutral particles that travel at a speed almost equal to the speed of light. It can fly through not only a steel sheet, but also a planet or a star. However, a small fraction of neutrinos interact with matter, especially with rocks and ice. Therefore, they can tell us a lot about what they encountered along the way.
The largest neutrino detectors are submerged in ice or hidden underground. But scientists also use balloons to capture the products of their interactions with other particles, launching them over Antarctica, where there are few other signals and where there is a thick layer of ice.
Tau neutrino
There are three types of neutrinos, which are described in detail in this article. Scientists were particularly interested in the third, most difficult type — the tau neutrino. Despite their small size, they carry a considerable amount of information about what they encountered immediately before detection.
And among these particles, an anomaly was discovered: some of them entered the detector at angles that indicated movement almost parallel to the planet’s surface — as if they were just gliding across it. But there were so many of them that they passed through the entire planet, losing their energy in the process.
Scientists have no explanation for how this could be possible. They hope for new, better detectors and suggest that the cause may be some effect that occurs near the ice surface and causes a change in the direction of wave propagation.
According to www.popsci.com
