Choose one or more: A.Roughly the same number of neutrinos were detected as expe
ID: 115435 • Letter: C
Question
Choose one or more:
A.Roughly the same number of neutrinos were detected as expected, so our models are likely correct.
B.The detector may have been missing some neutrinos for some reason.
C.There were fewer neutrinos detected than expected, so something might be wrong with our models.
D.There were more neutrinos detected than expected, so something might be wrong with our models.
E.There may be an extra source of neutrinos that came from a source other than the Sun that the detector was detecting.
Explanation / Answer
According to the Standard Model of particle physics, there are three flavors of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos, and tau neutrinos. Electron neutrinos are the ones produced in the Sun and the ones detected by the experiments, in particular the chlorine-detector.
Thus, the missing solar neutrinos could be electron neutrinos which changed into other flavors along the way to Earth, rendering them invisible to the detectors.
The solar neutrino problem concerned a large discrepancy between the flux of solar neutrinos as predicted from the Sun's luminosity and measured directly. This problem implies that there were fewer neutrinos detected than expected, indicating some problem with the models. The answer is option C.