News Particle Physics

Reactor data hint at existence of fourth neutrino

Deficit in antiparticle output exceeds theoretical expectations

Daya Bay Detector

GHOST FINDER New results of experiments at the Daya Bay neutrino detector (walls lined with photomultiplier tubes, shown) hint at the existence of a lightweight sterile neutrino, about one-millionth the mass of an electron. 

Brookhaven National Laboratory/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

By Ron Cowen

- More than 2 years ago

In tunnels deep inside a granite mountain at Daya Bay, a nuclear reactor facility some 55 kilometers from Hong Kong, sensitive detectors are hinting at the existence of a new form of neutrino, one of nature’s most ghostly and abundant elementary particles.