Elusive Neutrinos Detected in Never-Before-Seen Interaction

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory generates intense pulsed

neutron beams for scientific research and industrial development, and in the process also produces neutrinos. Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory Forty-three years ago, theoretical physicist Daniel Freedman predicted that neutrinos, the little-understood and elusive particles that travel through all types of matter, can, under certain circumstances, interact in a way that would make them much easier to detect. Now, for the first time, an international research team has proved the phenomenon, called coherent scattering, experimentally with the world's smallest neutrino detector. The results could pave the way for major advances in neutrino research and novel technologies for monitoring nuclear reactors, the scientists said. "It has been kind of a holy grail in neutrino physics," Juan Collar, a professor of experimental physics at the University of Chicago told Live Science.