![]() ![]() In the electron flavor, lepton number is described in terms of electron number electrons and electron neutrinos get a value of 1, positrons and electron antineutrinos get a value of -1, and all the other leptons (associated with muons or taus) have a value of 0, because they have no electron flavor. The electron and electron neutrino (and their antiparticles) are one set, the muon and muon neutrino are another, and the tau and tau neutrino make up the third. These are defining features that can distinguish a particle from an antiparticle (along with properties such as helicity).įamily lepton numbers are assigned to the three families of leptons, which are easily remembered by their flavors. Although neutrinos are electromagnetically neutral (they have no electric charge and no magnetic moment), they may carry another kind of charge: lepton number. ![]() On the other hand, scientists want to study antineutrino oscillations and find out if neutrinos and their antimatter siblings behave in unexpectedly different ways.Īn antineutrino is the antiparticle partner of the neutrino, meaning that the antineutrino has the same mass but opposite “charge” of the neutrino. On the practical side, antineutrinos are produced in prodigious amounts in nuclear reactors, and these antineutrinos can be used to precisely monitor the reactor core. Scientists are interested in antineutrinos for both practical and theoretical reasons. There are many experiments under way or proposed to discover whether that’s the case.įor now, scientists think of the three neutrinos (electron, muon, and tau neutrinos) and the three antineutrinos (electron, muon, and tau antineutrinos) as distinct particles. ![]() But if one of the main ways matter and antimatter are opposites is charge, then what does it mean that neutrinos are neutral? Does that mean neutrinos and antineutrinos are the same thing, only differing in the particles (positrons or electrons) produced along with them? Scientists aren’t sure. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate in a fiery burst of light.Īn antineutrino is thus simply an “opposite version” of a neutrino. It is also possible to create antiatoms in a laboratory and study them, though this is very difficult to do. Scientists aren’t sure where all of the antimatter is, but hope experiments like the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will shed light on this issue in the near future. Antimatter particles such as antiprotons and positrons can get together to form antiatoms the same way protons and electrons form atoms. However, most of what we see in the universe is made of matter rather than antimatter. An antiproton is a negatively charged proton. Credit: Symmetry Magazine/Sandbox Studio, Chicagoįor example, the electron has a negative electric charge, and the positron (an antielectron) has a positive charge. ![]()
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