An international team, acting on a daring recommendation from a postdoc researcher, has developed a reliable method for using neutrino scattering to probe internal structure of proton.
Scientists were able to measure the proton’s size as early as the 1950s by employing high-energy electron beams. Researchers have since been able to determine the charge distribution of the quarks that make up each element of the proton and investigate its internal structure by seeing how these tiny electrons scatter from objects.
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Theoretically, comparable observations ought to be achievable with a neutrino beam, such the one produced at Fermilab. Although neutrinos are nearly massless and chargeless, a small percentage of them in a laser beam will come into contact with protons and scatter at specific angles. Measurement of this scattering might be useful in examining proton structures in addition to complementing electron scattering investigations. It could also offer significant new insights into the interaction between protons and neutrinos.
Neutrino beams fired into targets of gaseous hydrogen have been the sole possibility explored by researchers thus far. Unfortunately, neutrinos cannot be scattered from these objects in large enough quantities to produce meaningful results with current experimental methods due to the protons’ extreme diffuseness.
The solution to this issue was almost accidentally discovered by Cai’s team in the latest study. By directing a high-energy neutrino beam into plastic scintillator targets, scientists are presently studying neutrinos at Fermilab via the MINERvA experiment. These polymers are solid, dense, and rich in carbon and hydrogen.(Source: Physics World)