THE NEUTRINO

According to the laws of physics, every interaction obeys the Principle of Conservation of Energy and the Principle of Conservation of Momentum.

However, in the case of nuclear reactions, upon doing experiment, it was found that both energy and momentum were not conserved!

So where did this energy and momentum go???

In 1931, Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed that a third particle must also be emitted to carry away the missing energy and momentum. This particle became known as the Neutrino (v).

The neutrino (v) only interacts very weakly with matter and was not detected experimentally until 1956, by Cowan and Reines.

Principle of Conservation of Energy:

In any interaction, the total amount of energy before the interaction, equals the total amount of energy after the interaction. That is, no energy is gained or lost.

Principle of Conservation of Momentum:

In any interaction, the sum of the momentum of the particles before the interaction, equals the sum of the momentum of the particles after the interaction. That is, no momentum is lost or gained.