Question

Likely solution to the solar neutrino problem, in which the neutrino has a very tiny mass. In this case, the correct number of neutrinos can be produced in the solar core, but on their way to Earth, some can oscillate, or become transformed into other particles, and thus go undetected.

a) Neutrino oscillation
b) Solar neutrino solution
c) Neutrino mass theory
d) Neutrino anomaly

Answer 1

The solar neutrino problem is best explained by a) Neutrino oscillation, where neutrinos change from one flavor to another due to having mass, causing a discrepancy in the number initially detected on Earth.

Step-by-step explanation:

The likely solution to the solar neutrino problem, which accounts for the discrepancy between the predicted and observed number of neutrinos from the Sun, is a) Neutrino oscillation. This phenomenon occurs because neutrinos have a small but nonzero mass, allowing them to change, or oscillate, between different types (or 'flavors')—electron, muon, and tau neutrinos—during their journey from the Sun to the Earth. The initial detectors were only sensitive to the electron neutrinos, leading to an apparent shortage in detections since some of the electron neutrinos were transforming into other flavors, going undetected as a result.

Neutrino oscillations also provide insight into other aspects of physics and astronomy, such as the composition of cosmic rays and the potential role of neutrinos as dark matter. The discovery of neutrino oscillations was a pivotal moment in physics, earning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for researchers Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald.