A number of "impossible" particles were discovered while studying the physical properties of the sixth continent using the Antarctic Pulsed Transient Antenna Experiment (ANITA), according to livescience.com. According to the researchers who first discovered the mysterious particles, the discovery of new types of neutrinos over Antarctica could cause the death of the generally accepted physical paradigm, which is already bursting at the seams. So why could new types of neutrinos herald the end of modern physics?
Neutrinos in Antarctica
Neutrinos are the weakest particles we only know about; they are difficult to detect and have almost no mass. These tiny particles constantly pass through our planet and sometimes collide with the protons, neutrons and electrons that make up our bodies and everything that surrounds them.
Discovered back in 2018, neutrino particles in the IceCube observatory buried in Antarctic ice do not correspond to their expected behavior in any standard particle model. Despite the fact that particles are very similar to ultrahigh neutrinos, they are distinguished from them by a number of oddities. So, ultrahigh neutrinos are not able to pass through the Earth, which suggests that a stream of previously unexplored matter rushes into the cold Antarctic sky.
It is known that many neutrinos that have come to us from distant space arise as a result of the interaction of cosmic rays with the microwave background - a weak afterglow left after the Big Bang. The result of this interaction is the launch of high-energy particles, which can be noticed by the already mentioned ANITA and IceCube. New types of neutrinos, indicating the existence of ultra-high energy, may come from so-called neutrino guns or space accelerators. According to experts, such objects can be blazars, active galactic nuclei, or gamma-ray bursts and neutron stars. Proof of this was the discovery in 2018 of a blazar, which emits streams of high-energy neutrinos in the center of a distant galaxy.
Discovered blazar in the center of a distant galaxy capable of emitting neutrino fluxes distinguishable on Earth
Be that as it may, ANITA only picks up the most extreme high-energy neutrinos, and if the flying upward particles were coming from the space-based neutrino accelerators of the standard physics model, they would most likely be easily detected by IceCube's lower energy detectors. However, this has not yet happened. The most logical explanation in this case may be that the modern powers of ANITA and IceCube do not allow us to look further and see what the particles found in Antarctica are in reality. Scientists hope that the creation of a new generation of neutrino detectors can help us solve this mystery, which may be directly related to dark matter or its varieties. In any case, any of the explanations presented in the future threatens to become truly revolutionary for modern science.
