Electron neutrino

An electron neutrino is one of the three known flavours of neutrino. Neutrinos are low mass neutral leptons described by the electroweak theory. These fermions, although sensitive to gravity, can only interact with quarks and other particles in the standard model through the weak nuclear force. They exist in three forms, or flavours, and can be transformed into each other by the oscillation mechanism postulated by the physicist Bruno Pontecorvo. These neutrino oscillations were finally revealed by the Super-kamiokande detector.

The formation of muon neutrinos

Neutrinos are produced and absorbed during high energy nuclear reactions, for example in the nucleosynthesis reactions that make the stars and the Sunshine. In these cases, however, it is electron neutrinos that appear. These were the first neutrinos postulated in the 1930s by Pauli and Ferli to explain the properties of beta radiation. They are called electron neutrinos because they accompany the production of electrons (or antielectrons) in disintegration reactions. A small proportion of dark matter is made up of neutrinos.