Experiment Where Scientists locate one atom in 10 Octillion
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This means watching for an isotope of xenon decaying into barium, giving off two electrons (the double beta decay), but without giving out any neutrinos. A beta decay process gives off one neutrino, so how could this even be possible? It only works if the neutrino is its own antiparticle, so that the two beta decays each have a neutrino which essentially cancel each other out, like matter and antimatter annihilating. And the possibility that process exists is the reason for the experiment. |
symmetry breaking Blog Archive Finding 1 atom in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Forgive me for nerding out, but this is really cool. Admittedly, I’m no physicist, but this experiment might change the way we look at elementary particle physics. That’s a big deal.
Also, how often do we get to use the term "octillion" with impunity? Rarely.