(NLDO) - An observatory located at a depth of 3,450 m under the Mediterranean Sea has captured a "ghost particle" that may bear the mark of where the universe began.
According to research recently published in the journal Nature, one of the two KM3NeT telescope arrays, located at a depth of 3,450 meters below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, has captured traces of "ghost particles" with a record energy of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV), 22 times higher than the previous record.
The "ghost particle" is the nickname scientists have given to the neutrino, a subatomic particle with a mass much smaller than any known fundamental particle.
They are constantly pouring down on the Earth and like ghosts passing through everything - from our bodies to the entire globe - without us being able to feel them.
Thanks to modern technology, humanity has captured this mysterious particle and discovered that tracking them can help serve research in cosmology, geophysics...
Reconstructed image of KM3NeT capturing light produced by neutrino sprite interactions - Photo: KM3NeT
The stream of neutrinos pouring into the Mediterranean at KM3NeT - located off the Italian island of Sicily - could reveal a cosmic monster, according to the international team from KM3NeT.
This deep-sea telescope array did not directly capture the ghostly particle stream, but it did capture more than 28,000 photons created by the neutrinos passing through the entire detector volume.
The particles are ejected almost horizontally, meaning the neutrinos that create them have to pass through a lot of rock and water in the Earth's crust before they hit the atoms in KM3NeT's field of view.
The light itself comes from another elementary particle called a muon, which is created during the cascade interaction.
This muon is estimated to have an energy of around 120 PeV, an incredibly high number for these particles. But that number is nothing compared to its precursor particle – the ghost neutrino.
Calculations show that the neutrino that created this muon must have had an energy of up to 220 PeV.
Only a handful of astronomical objects are capable of accelerating particles to such extreme energies, such as supernovae or black holes. One potential culprit is a quasar, a type of supermassive black hole that constantly shines and shoots a stream of radiation toward Earth.
But given their unprecedented energy levels, they could also be primordial cosmic neutrinos, created from cosmic rays interacting with photons from the background radiation left over from the Big Bang.
The team investigated four hypotheses for the region of the sky where this record-breaking energy ghost particle could have originated.
It could be something within our galaxy; something outside the galaxy but still within the local Universe; a transient event like a gamma-ray burst; or something from a distant galaxy.
The first three hypotheses were quickly dismissed. With the final hypothesis, the team narrowed down to 12 potential quasars located between distant galaxies, but none were convincing.
So they still lean toward the last scenario, which is very difficult to confirm: The ghost particles stirring up off the coast of Sicily are primordial ghost particles, bearing the imprint of the Big Bang.
If so, it would be the first time humanity has detected neutrinos created in this way. This hypothesis still needs further study.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/hat-ma-quy-manh-ky-luc-khuay-dong-ngoai-khoi-sicily-196250214095503426.htm
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