The KamLAND-Zen experiment uses the detector shown above to look for double beta decays of xenon-136. If those decays occur without any emitted neutrinos, the neutrino is its own antiparticle.

Alpha particles, primarily emitted by extremely heavy nuclei, are helium-4 nuclei (two protons and two neutrons tightly bound together); beta particles, emitted by unstable elements all across the ...

Researchers have observed a rare nuclear decay. Namely, the team measured low-kinetic-energy protons emitted after the beta decay of a neutron-rich nucleus beryllium-11.

One of the central questions in particle physics is whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles. If they are, neutrinoless double beta decay – which is forbidden by the Standard Model of particle ...

If observed someday, the existence of neutrinoless double-beta decay would require a new theoretical explanation of particle physics, he adds. Many theorists believe that it should exist.

Although optimized to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, the detector’s ability to plot the trajectories of individual emitted particles also makes it well suited to the new line of research.

In the EXO-200 experiment, physicists monitor a copper cylinder filled with 200 kilograms of liquid xenon-136, an unstable isotope that, theoretically, can undergo neutrinoless double beta decay.

Particles and antiparticles have opposite charges, and they annihilate if they interact, turning into pure energy. In the Big ...

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 ...