Neutrinos caught 'Shape Shifting' in new way

    



The first T2K neutrino event seen in the Super-Kamiokande in 2010. Each dot is a photomultiplier tube that has detected light



        Neutrinos have been caught spontaneously flip-flopping from one type to another in a way never previously seen. Further observations of this behaviour may shed light on how matter came to dominate over antimatter in the universe.

            Neutrinos are among the most slippery particles known to physics. They rarely interact with ordinary matter, but massive experiments have been set up to detect the flashes of light produced when they do.

           There are three known types, or flavours, of neutrino: electron, muon, and tau. Several experiments have found evidence that some flavours can spontaneously change into others, a phenomenon called neutrino oscillations. For example muon neutrinos can change into tau neutrinos.

           Now, results from a Japanese experiment called T2K have tentatively added a new kind of transformation to the list of allowed types – the metamorphosis of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos.