The Hunt for the Sterile Neutrino

listen to university of chicago's scott dodelson (who incidentally is also the acting director of the theoretical astrophysics group at fermilab) talk about the search for sterile neutrinos using miniboone as a new scientist podcast (scott starts talking around 18:55). a quick summary: miniboone has been searching for the sterile neutrino, a fourth type of neutrino (beyond the three neutrinos already included in the standard model of particle physics) that doesn't interact via the interactions in the standard model (electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions). however, since this hypothetical particle possesses mass, if it exists it would interact with other particles via gravitational interactions, thereby making it a candidate for dark matter. yeah, scott rocks. the image above shows the interior of the miniboone tank, which is covered with 1280 photomultiplier tubes. there are plenty of smart people you can ask about the setups of these experiments, here are some of the details. (image credit: fermilab)