Neutrinos Becoming Less Mysterious
The T2K experiment, whose primary purpose is to study neutrino interactions at a large distance from their source, has detected 6 electron- neutrino candidate events based on the data collected before March 11, 2011. This data provides an indication for the first time that muon neutrinos are able to transform into electron neutrinos over a distance of 295 km through the quantum mechanical phenomena of neutrino flavour oscillations. These hints validate the premise of the international science experiment and offer hope that a conclusive understanding of the elusive neutrino is within reach.