Science of physics meets science fiction, again

 

I think, perhaps, in the menagerie of particles and quarks and sub-atomic particles and mesons and bosons and baryons that make up the known material of the Universe, that the strangest (not talking quarks) is the neutrino.

Let's review:  a neutrino is this (from a site associated with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, named All Things Neutrino) --

"A neutrino is a particle! It’s one of the so-called fundamental particles, which means it isn’t made of any smaller pieces, at least that we know of. Neutrinos are members of the same group as the most famous fundamental particle, the electron (which is powering the device you’re reading this on right now). But while electrons have a negative charge, neutrinos have no charge at all.

Neutrinos are also incredibly small and light. They have some mass, but not much. They are the lightest of all the subatomic particles that have mass. They’re also extremely common—in fact, they’re the most abundant massive particle in the universe. Neutrinos come from all kinds of different sources and are often the product of heavy particles turning into lighter ones, a process called “decay.”

To put it simply, they are very weird. But they are definitely real. 

Now, getting to the subject of this post, scientists have conceived the idea of a laser composed of neutrinos. 

My first question is:  What good is it?  If neutrinos barely interact with anything, what is a neutrino laser going to be used for?  Will anyone even notice that it's "ON"? 

Let's start with the article:

Physicists Devise An Idea For Lasers That Shoot Beams Of Neutrinos

"In a paper appearing in Physical Review Letters, the physicists introduce the concept for a “neutrino laser” — a burst of neutrinos that could be produced by laser-cooling a gas of radioactive atoms down to temperatures colder than interstellar space. At such frigid temps, the team predicts the atoms should behave as one quantum entity, and radioactively decay in sync.

The decay of radioactive atoms naturally releases neutrinos, and the physicists say that in a coherent, quantum state this decay should accelerate, along with the production of neutrinos. This quantum effect should produce an amplified beam of neutrinos, broadly similar to how photons are amplified to produce conventional laser light.

“In our concept for a neutrino laser, the neutrinos would be emitted at a much faster rate than they normally would, sort of like a laser emits photons very fast,” says study co-author Ben Jones PhD ’15, an associate professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington."

OK, sure.  Now for the "what could it be used for?" part.

"The team hopes to build a small tabletop demonstration to test their idea. If it works, they envision a neutrino laser could be used as a new form of communication, by which the particles could be sent directly through the Earth to underground stations and habitats."

Well, maybe, but what's going to detect it?  I don't think they've thought that out.

You can read the rest of the article -- but there is this note.  "The pair" refers to the researchers who have come up with this idea.

"The pair acknowledge that such an experiment will require a number of precautions and careful manipulation."

I'm not sure why, except possibly that if they aren't careful they'll destroy the underlying fabric of the Universe. But that's research for ya.

This diagram is from the article linked underneath it, which is also about this zany, but in the realm of possibility, idea.

Envisioning a neutrino laser