Neutrinofysica

Neutrinofysica is a field of particle physics dedicated to the study of neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental subatomic particles with a very small mass and no electric charge. They interact very weakly with other matter, making them notoriously difficult to detect. There are three known types, or "flavors," of neutrinos: the electron neutrino, the muon neutrino, and the tau neutrino, each associated with its corresponding charged lepton.

A key phenomenon in neutrinofysica is neutrino oscillation, where neutrinos can change their flavor as they travel. This discovery, for which the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded, provided the first definitive evidence that neutrinos have mass. The precise mass of neutrinos is still an active area of research.

Experiments in neutrinofysica range from large underground detectors designed to shield from cosmic rays and capture the rare interactions of neutrinos, to observatories in space. These experiments aim to understand the properties of neutrinos, their role in the universe, and their implications for fundamental physics, such as the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. Studying neutrinos can also provide insights into processes within stars and the early universe.