Scientists Are Probing The Biggest Mystery in Physics, And The First Results Are In

Experiments searching for a solution to one of physics’ most perplexing mysteries have recently been delivering their first rounds of results, setting new limits on where we need to look for evidence.

Four experiments are under way

1 The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) at Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy

2 A second experiment at Gran Sasso is using isotope germanium-76 instead. They have less material to catch the decay, but the whole set-up is proving to be extremely sensitive, reducing the risk of missing the event if it happ

3 Across the Atlantic in New Mexico, the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO-200) is housing an experiment 600 metres (1970 feet) underground based on potential decays in the isotope xenon-136.

4 Also in the US at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, a collaboration are working on an experiment called the MAJORANA Demonstrator. This time it’s a lump of germanium-76 tucked under 1.6 kilometres of rock, inside an old mine.

more…

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Are Probing The Biggest Mystery in Physics, And The First Results Are In

Experiments searching for a solution to one of physics’ most perplexing mysteries have recently been delivering their first rounds of results, setting new limits on where we need to look for evidence.

Four experiments are under way

1 The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) at Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy

2 A second experiment at Gran Sasso is using isotope germanium-76 instead. They have less material to catch the decay, but the whole set-up is proving to be extremely sensitive, reducing the risk of missing the event if it happens

3 Across the Atlantic in New Mexico, the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO-200) is housing an experiment 600 metres (1970 feet) underground based on potential decays in the isotope xenon-136.

4 Also in the US at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, a collaboration are working on an experiment called the MAJORANA Demonstrator. This time it’s a lump of germanium-76 tucked under 1.6 kilometres of rock, inside an old mine.

more…

Even without looking at the link, I know what they’re talking about, almost.

All four of these are large neutrino detectors. They are actually capable of detecting three of the biggest mysteries in physics, with a bit of luck.

Mystery 1.
What is dark matter and how heavy are the particles that it’s made of? Mystery dates from 1980.

Mystery 2.
Do protons decay into positrons? This is predicted by a huge variety of models of subatomic physics, including string theory. Mystery dates from 1963.
“The possible connection between certain universal symmetry operations and baryon and lepton conservation. D.A.Robertson, 1963”. It became better known in 1976.

Mystery 3.
Can we rule out the neutrino inverted mass hierarchy? In the inverted hierarchy the tau neutrino is lighter rather than heavier than the muon neutrino. Mystery dates from 1981. “Mass hierarchies in supersymmetric theories”, Edward Witten.