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Particle physics meets cosmology - The search for decaying neutrinosThe fundamental physical implications of the possible detection of massive neutrinos are discussed, with an emphasis on the Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) of matter. The Newtonian and general-relativistic pictures of the fundamental forces are compared, and the reduction of electromagnetic and weak forces to one force in the GUTs is explained. The cosmological consequences of the curved-spacetime gravitation concept are considered. Quarks, leptons, and neutrinos are characterized in a general treatment of elementary quantum mechanics. The universe is described in terms of quantized fields, the noninteractive 'particle' fields and the force fields, and cosmology becomes the study of the interaction of gravitation with the other fields, of the 'freezing out' of successive fields with the expansion and cooling of the universe. While the visible universe is the result of the clustering of the quark and electron fields, the distribution of the large number of quanta in neutrino field, like the mass of the neutrino, are unknown. Cosmological models which attribute anomalies in the observed motions of galaxies and stars to clusters or shells of massive neutrinos are shown to be consistent with a small but nonzero neutrino mass and a universe near the open/closed transition point, but direct detection of the presence of massive neutrinos by the UV emission of their decay is required to verify these hypotheses.
Document ID
19830063641
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Henry, R. C.
(Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 11, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1982
Publication Information
Publication: Physics Teacher
ISSN: 0031-921X
Subject Category
Space Radiation
Accession Number
83A44859
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NGR-21-001-001
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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