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Solar Neutrinos Essay

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Solar Neutrinos Essay
\subsection{Neutrino sources}
\label{sec:Neutrino sources}
Neutrinos are produced both naturally and in the laboratory. To understand the intrinsic properties of neutrinos, each of these sources provides information, sometimes overlapping.

\subsubsection{Solar neutrinos}
\label{sec:Solar neutrinos}
It can be begin with solar neutrino problem because of its historical importance. The Sun generates heat and light through thermonuclear fusion reactions. There are cycles of such reactions which take place in the Sun, for example the {\it{pp}} chain, the CNO cycle, etc., where neutrinos are produced at different stages. The effective process is the {\it{pp}} chain reaction and is summarized as following:

\begin{equation} p + p + p + p \rightarrow
…show more content…
From this, the solar neutrino flux at the Earth is calculated to be 70 billion/cm$^{2}$/sec. The Sun produces only electron neutrinos and they carry only MeVs of energy. The solar neutrinos were first discovered by Davis and his collaborators at Homestake gold mine, USA, as discussed in section~\ref{sec:A historical introduction}.

\subsubsection{Atmospheric neutrinos}
\label{sec:Atmospheric neutrinos}
The primary cosmic-rays interact with the Earth's atmospheric nuclei and produce showers of particles. Many of these particles are unstable and produce neutrinos when they decay as following:

\begin{equation} \pi^{+} \longrightarrow \mu^{+} + \nu_{\mu}
\end{equation}
\vskip -1cm
\begin{equation}
\pi^{-} \longrightarrow \mu^{-} + {\overline{\nu}_{\mu}}
…show more content…
The atmospheric neutrinos were first discovered at the
Kolar Gold Field (KGF) mines in South India~\cite{C_V_Achar} and East Rand Proprietary Gold mines in South Africa~\cite{F_Reines}.

\subsubsection{Neutrinos from supernovae}
\label{sec:Neutrinos from Supernovae}
Neutrinos are copiously emitted during stellar collapse. The first such observation of neutrinos from a supernova took place in 1987. During the early stage of stellar collapse neutrinos are produced through neutronization as following:

\begin{equation} e^{-} + p \rightarrow n + \nu_{e},
\end{equation}

\noindent where only $\nu_{e}$s are produced. The main neutrino emission is during the cooling phase where the thermal $\nu$/$\bar{\nu}$s are produced through the pair production as one of the processes as following:

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