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sanman
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Neutrino vs Photon Propulsion
So neutrinos, once thought to be completely massless and travel at the speed of light, have recently been deduced to have mass because of their ability to undergo flavor change. It's not known however exactly how much mass the neutrino has.
So what then would the characteristics of a neutrino thruster be, in comparison to a photon thruster? Likewise, what would the characteristics of a neutrino sail be, in comparison to a photon sail?
Neutrinos seem to then have a rest mass, while photons do not. Photons have more coupling interaction with matter through electromagnetism, while neutrons only seem to interact weakly through the weak force.
Does a neutrino thruster or sail offer any advantages over its photonic counterpart? If so, then under what circumstances?
Would the fact that the neutrino has rest mass (howsoever miniscule) then afford the neutrino thruster greater thrust than the photonic one?
Since neutrinos only interact weakly through the weak force, then it seems challenging to conceive of a sail that gathers momentum from them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino
So neutrinos, once thought to be completely massless and travel at the speed of light, have recently been deduced to have mass because of their ability to undergo flavor change. It's not known however exactly how much mass the neutrino has.
So what then would the characteristics of a neutrino thruster be, in comparison to a photon thruster? Likewise, what would the characteristics of a neutrino sail be, in comparison to a photon sail?
Neutrinos seem to then have a rest mass, while photons do not. Photons have more coupling interaction with matter through electromagnetism, while neutrons only seem to interact weakly through the weak force.
Does a neutrino thruster or sail offer any advantages over its photonic counterpart? If so, then under what circumstances?
Would the fact that the neutrino has rest mass (howsoever miniscule) then afford the neutrino thruster greater thrust than the photonic one?
Since neutrinos only interact weakly through the weak force, then it seems challenging to conceive of a sail that gathers momentum from them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino
The neutrino has half-integer spin (\begin{matrix}\frac{1}{2}\hbar\end{matrix}) and is therefore a fermion. Neutrinos interact primarily through the weak force. The discovery of neutrino flavor oscillations implies that neutrinos have mass. The existence of a neutrino mass strongly suggests the existence of a tiny neutrino magnetic moment[8] of the order of 10−19 μB, allowing the possibility that neutrinos may interact electromagnetically as well.
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