https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Neutrinos are very small, neutral subatomic particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter and are thus sometimes referred to as ghost particles. There are three known types (i.e., flavors) of neutrinos, dubbed muon, electron and tau neutrinos. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-nova-neutrino-oscillations-miles-years.html General Physics Wed, 11 Feb 2026 07:50:01 EST news689869250 Ciaran O'Hare scribbles symbols using colored markers across his whiteboard like he's trying to solve a crime—or perhaps planning one. He bounces around the edges of the board, slowly filling it with sharp angles and curling letters. I watch on, and when he senses I'm losing track, he pauses intermittently, allowing my brain to catch up. Ciaran speaks with an easy to understand British inflection, but the language on the whiteboard might as well be hieroglyphics. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-neutrino-fog-ghosts-dark.html General Physics Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:50:02 EST news689517796 They're called ghost particles for a reason. They're everywhere—trillions of them constantly stream through everything: our bodies, our planet, even the entire cosmos. These so-called neutrinos are elementary particles that are invisible, incredibly light, and interact only rarely with other matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-astrophysicists-ghost-particles-milky-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 08 Jan 2026 08:45:28 EST news687084302 Experimental particle physicists working at the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory have found evidence against the existence of a "sterile" type of neutrino hypothesized to be responsible for previous experiments' anomalous results, as detailed in a paper published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-nixes-sterile-neutrino-explanation-previous.html Astronomy Thu, 01 Jan 2026 10:20:01 EST news685620788 Scientists search for "decaying" dark matter (DDM) because it offers unique signatures like specific X-ray or gamma-ray lines or neutrino signals not seen in normal matter, potentially revealing dark matter's particle nature, mass and interactions, information that could illuminate the universe's structure. DDM is a theoretical model where dark matter particles aren't perfectly stable, but slowly decay over vast cosmic timescales into lighter dark matter particles and/or massless particles, leaving behind gravitational or electromagnetic signals. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-decaying-dark-unidentified-ray-emission.html Astronomy Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:31:35 EST news685186262 Australian researchers have played a central role in a landmark result from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment in South Dakota—the world's most sensitive dark matter detector. Today, scientists working on the experiment report they have further narrowed constraints on proposed dark matter particles. And, for the first time, the experiment has detected elusive neutrinos produced deep inside the sun. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-dark-narrows-detector-limits-solar.html General Physics Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:26:55 EST news685031183 Dark matter is an elusive type of matter that does not emit, reflect or absorb light, yet is estimated to account for most of the universe's mass. Over the past decades, many physicists worldwide have been trying to detect this type of matter or signals associated with its presence, employing various approaches and technologies. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-neutrino-observatories-dark.html General Physics Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:10:02 EST news684579982 Neutrinos are one of the most mysterious particles in the universe, often called "ghost particles" because they rarely interact with anything else. Trillions stream through our bodies every second, yet leave no trace. They are produced during nuclear reactions, including those that take place in the core of our sun. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ghostly-solar-neutrinos-caught-carbon.html General Physics Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:00:10 EST news684508634 Scientists have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing mystery in particle physics, by finding no sign of the particle many hoped would explain it. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-scientists-fourth-neutrino-particle-physics.html General Physics Wed, 03 Dec 2025 13:00:03 EST news683988700 Neutrinos, though nearly invisible, are among the most numerous matter particles in the universe. The Standard Model recognizes three types, but the discovery of neutrino oscillations revealed they have mass and can change identity while propagating. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-tightening-net-elusive-sterile-neutrino.html General Physics Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:00:01 EST news683887382 There is a limit to how big we can build particle colliders on Earth, whether that is because of limited space or limited economics. Since size is equivalent to energy output for particle colliders, that also means there's a limit to how energetic we can make them. And again, since high energies are required to test theories that go beyond the standard model (BSM) of particle physics, that means we will be limited in our ability to validate those theories until we build a collider big enough. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-neutrino-detectors-giant-particle-colliders.html General Physics Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:09:03 EST news681390541 So much happened in the earliest moments of the universe. Elementary particles appeared, the first nuclei of hydrogen and helium, and fluctuations of energy and matter set into motion the formation of galaxies and supermassive black holes. But all of it is invisible to us. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-cosmic-microwave-background-wall.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:00:04 EDT news680861194 Dark matter has two central properties: it has mass like regular matter, and unlike regular matter, it reacts weakly or not at all with light. Neutrinos satisfy these two criteria, but neutrinos move through space at nearly the speed of light, making them a form of hot dark matter. The observations we have suggest that dark matter is cold. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-dark-view-universe.html Astronomy Sun, 26 Oct 2025 10:30:01 EDT news680516359 Below the waves of the Mediterranean, Europe's KM3NeT neutrino telescope is on a cosmic hunt. Towering strings of sensors stretch a kilometer down to the seafloor, arranged in a vast 3D grid. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-europe-deep-sea-telescope-universe.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:59:04 EDT news680529541 The origins of extremely high-energy particles that fill the universe—such as protons, electrons, and neutrinos—remain one of the longest-standing mysteries in modern astrophysics. A leading hypothesis suggests that "explosive transients," including massive stellar explosions (supernovae) and tidal disruption events (TDE) caused by stars being torn apart by black holes, could be the cosmic engines driving these energetic particles. Yet, this idea has never been rigorously tested. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-elusive-neutrino-multiplets-tightens-limits.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:05:03 EDT news680522701 Very early on in our universe, when it was a seething hot cauldron of energy, particles made of matter and antimatter bubbled into existence in equal proportions. For example, negatively charged electrons were created in the same numbers as their antimatter siblings, positively charged positrons. When the two particles combined, they canceled each other out. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-japan-precise-neutrino-field.html General Physics Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:00:17 EDT news680253176 Although the building blocks of life such as hydrogen and oxygen appear stable to us, many theories of physics predict that they are actually just tremendously long-lived, with the particles found in their nuclei slowly, but ultimately decaying. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-life-blocks-stable.html General Physics Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:02:03 EDT news677757721 The collision and merger of two neutron stars—the incredibly dense remnants of collapsed stars—are some of the most energetic events in the universe, producing a variety of signals that can be observed on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-neutrinos-colliding-neutron-stars-merger.html Astronomy Sun, 21 Sep 2025 13:40:02 EDT news677507921 Neutrinos are one of the most enigmatic particles in the standard model. The main reason is that they're so hard to detect. Despite the fact that 400 trillion of them created in the sun are passing through a person's body every second, they rarely interact with normal matter, making understanding anything about them difficult. To help solve their mysteries, a new neutrino detector in China recently started collecting data, and hopes to provide insight on between forty and sixty neutrinos a day for the next ten years. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-neutrino-detector-china-online.html General Physics Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:40:03 EDT news677166001 At any given moment, trillions of particles called neutrinos are streaming through our bodies and every material in our surroundings, without noticeable effect. Smaller than electrons and lighter than protons, these ghostly entities are the most abundant particles with mass in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-physicists-idea-lasers-neutrinos.html General Physics Mon, 08 Sep 2025 13:22:04 EDT news676556521 Researchers hope to use neutrinos to find the sources of cosmic radiation. New algorithms out of Bochum are aiding in the search, and have also eliminated a few candidates. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-neutrino-trajectories-real.html Astronomy Fri, 22 Aug 2025 08:46:11 EDT news675071164 Neutrinos—ghostly particles that rarely interact with normal matter—are the sun's secret messengers. These particles are born deep within the sun, a byproduct of the nuclear fusion process which powers all stars. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-sun-secret-messengers-dune-reveal.html General Physics Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:48:05 EDT news674297282 Neutrinos are fundamental particles characterized by no electric charge and very small masses, which are known to interact with other matter via the weak force or gravity. While these particles have been the focus of numerous research studies, the processes through which they acquire their masses have not yet been elucidated. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-neutrino-masses-interactions-dark.html General Physics Fri, 01 Aug 2025 06:30:01 EDT news673174424 Neutrinos are subatomic particles with no charge and very little mass that are known to weakly interact with other matter in the universe. Due to their weak interactions with other particles, these particles are notoriously difficult to detect. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-icecube-neutrino-constraints-proton-fraction.html General Physics Mon, 28 Jul 2025 11:30:04 EDT news672916689 Neutrinos are cosmic tricksters, paradoxically hardly there but lethal to stars significantly more massive than the sun. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-neutrinos-secret-life-interact-secretly.html General Physics Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:43:28 EDT news671726604 Neutrinos are elementary particles that are predicted to be massless by the standard model of particle physics, yet their observed oscillations suggest that they do in fact have a mass, which is very low. A further characteristic of these particles is that they only weakly interact with other matter, which makes them very difficult to detect using conventional experimental methods. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-katrin-constraints-general-neutrino-interactions.html General Physics Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:30:01 EDT news671444783 A cosmic particle detector in Antarctica has detected a series of bizarre signals that defy the current understanding of particle physics, according to an international research group that includes scientists from Penn State. The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-strange-radio-pulses-ice-antarctica.html General Physics Fri, 13 Jun 2025 13:28:04 EDT news669040082 As federal funding cuts impact decades of research, scientists could turn to black holes for cheaper, natural alternatives to expensive facilities searching for dark matter and similarly elusive particles that hold clues to the universe's deepest secrets, a new Johns Hopkins study of supermassive black holes suggests. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-scientists-black-holes-supercolliders.html Astronomy Tue, 03 Jun 2025 11:00:06 EDT news668160001 For a while now, there has been a problematic mystery at the heart of the standard cosmological model. Although all observations support the expanding universe model, observations of the early period of the cosmos give a lower rate of acceleration than more local observations. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-dark-evolving-energy.html Astronomy Fri, 16 May 2025 08:34:03 EDT news666603242 Technology is being pushed to its very limits. The upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN slated for the next few years will increase data transfer rates beyond what the current neutrino detector for the FASER experiment can cope with, requiring it to be replaced by a new kind of more powerful detector. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-detector-neutrinos.html General Physics Thu, 08 May 2025 13:20:01 EDT news665928714