Neutrino (source code)

= Neutrino
{wiki}

A neutrino is an electrically neutral spin-one-half <lepton> with very weak ordinary interactions. The three active flavors are associated with the electron, muon and tau in <weak charged current> production and detection. A flavor state is generally a superposition of <neutrino mass> eigenstates, permitting <neutrino oscillations> during propagation.

Detection infers a neutrino from its interaction products rather than observing an ionizing track from a free neutrino. A charged-current event can produce the corresponding charged lepton, while a neutral-current event leaves a neutrino in the final state and deposits energy in the target. Small interaction probabilities motivate large target masses and careful control of backgrounds. Neutrality does not imply zero mass; oscillations constrain differences of squared masses, rather than fixing the absolute mass scale by themselves.