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A solar neutrino is a neutrino originating from nuclear fusion in the Sun's core, and is the most common type of neutrino passing through any source observed on Earth at any particular moment. [ citation needed ] Neutrinos are elementary particles with extremely small rest mass and a neutral electric charge .
The Sun performs nuclear fusion via the proton–proton chain reaction, which converts four protons into alpha particles, neutrinos, positrons, and energy.This energy is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation, as gamma rays, as well as in the form of the kinetic energy of both the charged particles and the neutrinos.
The Homestake experiment (sometimes referred to as the Davis experiment or Solar Neutrino Experiment and in original literature called Brookhaven Solar Neutrino Experiment or Brookhaven 37 Cl (Chlorine) Experiment) [1] was an experiment headed by astrophysicists Raymond Davis, Jr. and John N. Bahcall in the late 1960s.
SAGE was devised to measure the radio-chemical solar neutrino flux based on the inverse beta decay reaction, 71 Ga + + 71 Ge. The target for the reaction was 50-57 tonnes of liquid gallium metal stored deep (2100 meters) underground at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia.
A chlorine detector in the former Homestake Mine near Lead, South Dakota, containing 520 short tons (470 metric tons) of fluid, was the first to detect the solar neutrinos, and made the first measurement of the deficit of electron neutrinos from the sun (see Solar neutrino problem).
This was dramatically confirmed in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), which has resolved the solar neutrino problem. SNO measured the flux of solar electron neutrinos to be ~34% of the total neutrino flux (the electron neutrino flux measured via the charged current reaction, and the total flux via the neutral current reaction). The SNO ...
The rate of neutrinos detected by this experiment disagreed with standard solar model predictions. Thanks to the use of gallium, it was the first experiment to observe solar initial pp neutrinos. Another important result was the detection of a smaller number of neutrinos than the standard model predicted (the solar neutrino problem). After ...
Hence, solar neutrinos make it possible for us to observe the inner Sun in "real-time" that takes millions of years for visible light. [23] In 1999, the Super-Kamiokande detected strong evidence of neutrino oscillation that successfully explained the solar neutrino problem. The Sun and about 80% of the visible stars produce their energy by the ...