To understand neutrinos, it pays to be small-minded.
The subatomic particles are so lightweight, they’re almost massless. They’re a tiny fraction of the mass of the next lightest particle, the electron. But scientists still don’t know exactly how slight the particles are. A new estimate from the KATRIN experiment, located in Karlsruhe, Germany, further shrinks the maximum possible mass neutrinos could have.
The puny particles have masses of 0.8 electron volts or less, physicist Diana Parno reported April 19 at a virtual meeting of the American Physical Society. For comparison, electrons are more than 600,000 times as bulky, at about 511,000 electron volts. “Neutrino masses are tiny,” said Parno,
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