nother – almost as an airplane travels only between airports. Typically, the neutrino is “born” or initiated in an IVB event (for example, during the decay of a muon to an electron, in which both a muon neutrino and an electron antineutrino are produced (in all reactions below, antiparticles are underlined; the electroweak transformation matrix of the “W” IVB is represented by square brackets; virtual particle-antiparticle pairs of mesons and leptons are enclosed in parentheses)):
u-[ (e+ x e-) ]W- —> vu + ve + e-
In such an initiating decay, neutrinos pick up their symmetry debt of “identity” and perform their function as alternative charge carriers (and conservers) of the muon’s and electron’s identity charges. Subsequently, the neutrinos carry their charges through spacetime at nearly the speed of light until they engage in another IVB interaction in which their services as alternative charge carriers are required, or they are annihilated/neutralized by corresponding anticharges. Neutrino oscillations during flight mean that weak force charge conservation may by observed at the generic level of lepton number rather than the specific level of lepton identity: what began as an electron neutrino may end up as a muon neutrino, etc. Once within the transformation matrix of the “W” IVB, however, oscillations cease and weak force charge is conserved at the specific level of lepton identity: electron neutrinos only react with electrons, etc. Below I give abbreviated examples of baryon transformations occurring in the Sun and in the neutrino detector:
Solar fusion: proton —> neutron
uud+[ (du– x du+)(e- x e+) ]W+ —> udd + ve + e+
Neutrino detector: neutron —> proton
ve + udd[ (du+ x du-)(e+ x e-) ]W- —> udu+ + ve + e-
In the detector reaction, there is no way to balance the lepton number of the reaction unless we assume that the incoming (solar) electron neutrino is conserved as the hidden (but real) number charge (identity charge) of the product electron. It is as if the electron is transformed from virtual to real by the act of consumming a real electron neutrino and “hiding” it internally.
See also: Sverker Johansson’s website for an authoritative discussion of neutrinos and the “Soar Neutrino Problem”:
“The Solar FAQ”
Electron and Neutrino Pair Production
(added Nov. 28, 2011)
In the case of electron-positron pair production, we need only supply enough energy to satisfy the rest mass of the pair according to Einstein’s famous equation: E = mcc. However, in the creation of a matter-antimatter neutrino pair, with a very much smaller rest mass energy, we must supply enough energy to create a Z (neutral) IVB (about 91 MEV) – the equivalent of approximately 91 proton masses. Why this enormous difference between particles joined in the electroweak unification? In the case of the electron-positron pair, the weak force identity charges are hidden and balancing, so only the electromagnetic force boson (photon) need be involved to create the electric charges. However, in the case of the neutrino-antineutrino pair, there is no electric charge present and the neutrinos represent “bare” weak force identity charges, which can only be produced by a weak force boson, in this case the Z (neutral) IVB. Similarly, in the case of the production of an electron and electron antineutrino during the decay (for example) of a neutron (beta decay), a “bare” single antineutrino is produced (balancing the hidden “lepton number” or weak force “identity” charge of the electron). This bare, single neutrino (an explicit weak force identity charge) can only be created by a weak force IVB, in this case the W-.
The ability to “hide” neutrinos or weak force “identity” charges is what determines the members of the massive leptonic spectrum or series – the electron, muon, and tau, and in all probability, the leptoquark, heaviest member of the series and progenitor of the proton, neutron, and hyperons.
The ability to hide the weak identity charge in leptonic alternative charge carriers is absolutely necessary for weak-force symmetry-breaking via the production o