(ORDO NEWS) — The universe is filled with moving particles and high-energy radiations, which are formed, for example, as a result of star explosions or absorption of matter by black holes.
Some of these cosmic events send high-energy neutrinos toward Earth, ghostly particles that barely interact with normal matter. At the same time, other cosmic events become sources of fast radio bursts, which are short but powerful bursts of radio emission.
Astronomers do not know the sources of high-energy neutrinos, and the origin of fast radio bursts is also shrouded in a veil of mystery. The discovery of a connection between the location of neutrino sources and fast radio bursts in the universe would explain the origin of both.
But, alas, no such connection could be found.
Neutrinos are among the most common particles in nature. As you read this article, trillions of neutrinos are passing through your body every second. Not only are they the lightest of all known particles, but they also barely interact with normal matter.
Neutrinos that come to Earth can be of low or high energy. High-energy neutrinos, as it turned out, are of extragalactic origin – since they are observed uniformly from all directions, without a predominant concentration in the plane of the Milky Way.
Since neutrinos almost do not interact with anything, they move in straight lines, and the direction to its source can be determined from the direction of particle movement.
Despite millions of cases of registration of high-energy neutrinos, it was not possible to associate their origin with a specific galaxy or region of the sky. Of course, these particles are generated in some high-energy process, but scientists have not yet been able to understand in which one.
Fast radio bursts are also mysterious events. First discovered in 2007, they are very short-term, but at the same time indicate some kind of high-energy events, scientists say.
In a new study, Shantanu Desai, an astronomer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, studied the relationship between the millions of detected high-energy neutrinos and fast radio bursts.
According to the data obtained by scientists, the frequency of meeting a fast radio burst at a relatively small angular distance from a neutrino was no different from the probability of meeting it in any other region of outer space. This means that the generation of high-energy neutrinos and fast radio bursts in the same high-energy process is unlikely, the astronomer believes.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.