PHYSICS · Single correct · A Level · Physics · Particles and radiation · Particles and radiation
Problem
In a nuclear reactor, billions of neutrinos pass through large detectors with almost no recorded interactions. Which of the following best explains this observation?
(a) Neutrinos are electrically neutral, so they experience no forces from matter and therefore rarely interact.
(b) Because neutrinos move at nearly the speed of light, they spend too little time inside the detector to interact with atoms.
(c) Neutrinos interact only through the weak nuclear force, whose interaction cross-section is many orders of magnitude smaller than that of the electromagnetic force.
(d) Neutrinos have such a tiny mass that they carry almost no momentum, making collisions with detector nuclei practically impossible.