Seminar on Getting to know the Neutrinos

Programme Highlights

Neutrinos are elementary particles that are abundant in the universe yet notoriously difficult to detect.  We thought the neutrinos were massless for decades. However, the tide began to turn when we studied neutrinos originating from the Sun and the atmosphere in the eighties and nineties. We have observed that a neutrino moving in space can morph its identity, a fascinating phenomenon called neutrino oscillation. Furthermore, the existence of neutrino oscillation implies the neutrinos do possess mass after all. This exciting discovery has opened the floodgate for a new series of neutrino experiments. The holy grail is to explore the potentially different oscillating behaviour between the neutrinos and antineutrinos which, in turn, may explain why our Universe is dominated with matter rather than anti-matter. In this talk, a brief history of the neutrino, the discoveries of neutrino oscillation, and some of the remaining open questions of neutrino physics will be presented.

Speaker

Kam-Biu LUK, who is a Professor in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, a Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, with an interest in particle physics and cosmology.

Registration and Enquiry

The seminar is free of charge and prior registration is required.  The number of participants will be limited to 50 and applicants will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis though with priority the members of Nuclear Division. For registration, please complete and return the Standard Reply Form to Ms Anthea FUNG via Email: nuclear@ne.hkie.org.hk by 7 April 2018. Successful applicants will be notified by email. For enquiries, please contact Ir Richard FUNG at telephone 26788340.

Disclaimer

All information and views expressed by speakers and in their conference materials do not reflect the official opinion and position of HKIE. No responsibility is accepted by the HKIE or their publisher for such information and views including their accuracy, correctness and veracity.

Technical Seminar on “Getting to know the Neutrinos”

Prepared by Ms Anthea FUNG

A technical seminar organized by the Nuclear Division on “Getting to know the Neutrinos” was held on 16 April 2018. The seminar was presented to over 30 participants by Professor Kam-Biu LUK, specialising in particle physics and cosmology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor LUK opened the talk by introducing the properties of the neutrinos to the audience. Neutrinos consist of three forms of elementary particles (with their corresponding anti-particles) that are abundant in the Universe yet notoriously difficult to detect as they have no electric charge and possess such a very small mass that we thought the neutrinos were massless for decades. Nevertheless, their significance should not be dismissed since they are considered to be nearly as abundant as the stars in our universe. Most of the neutrinos in the vicinity of our planet are produced from the nuclear reactions of the sun, though they can be artificially created with nuclear reactors and particle accelerators for academic purposes.

During the study in the last 10 years, it is also inferred that neutrinos may transform from one form to another, in a process known as “neutrino oscillation”. Based on the theory developed on the transformation, it is possible to design an experiment to confirm how soon the neutrinos may transform after leaving their source.

The six nuclear reactors at Daya Bay Nuclear Power base present an ideal source for conducting the experiment on neutrinos. Their combined capacity is among the largest in the world and the nearby hills provide a natural shelter from the interference of solar neutrinos for a laboratory built underground. The experiment has been an international project with input from Hong Kong and it yield results since 2012 that well demonstrate the oscillation. A follow-up experiment is planned in Jiangmen.

On behalf of the Nuclear Division, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Kam-Biu LUK for providing this illuminating seminar on neutrinos to our members.

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