Neutrinoselectron

Neutrinoselectron is a term sometimes used to describe the interaction between neutrinos and electrons, or more specifically neutrino-electron scattering. It is not the name of a fundamental particle; in standard usage, neutrinoselectron refers to the leptonic scattering process governed by the electroweak sector of the Standard Model.

The interaction proceeds through two kinds of weak forces. Charged-current interactions, mediated by W bosons, occur for electron neutrinos with electrons, leading to a final-state electron and a neutrino of the same flavor. Neutral-current interactions, mediated by Z bosons, occur for all neutrino flavors and do not change the neutrino. Consequently, the cross section for νe e- scattering is larger than that for νμ e- or ντ e- scattering due to the additional charged-current contribution, while all flavors share the neutral-current channel.

Experiments observe neutrinoselectron scattering primarily as a recoil of the electron after the collision. At energies typical of solar, reactor, or accelerator neutrinos, the cross section is small and increases roughly with neutrino energy. The process provides a clean leptonic channel with a single observable electron, making it useful for testing electroweak theory, constraining the weak mixing angle, and studying neutrino properties, including oscillations and fluxes from different sources.

Historically, neutrino-electron scattering has been studied in large detectors such as water Cherenkov and liquid scintillator experiments, contributing to measurements of solar neutrino fluxes and to tests of the Standard Model’s predictions for weak interactions.

There is no established bound state of a neutrino with an electron; such a bound configuration would be extremely weak and is not observed. Thus neutrinoselectron most often denotes the scattering interaction rather than a particle. See also weak interaction, neutrino oscillations, neutrino detectors, and solar neutrinos.