tau neutrino

American  

noun

Physics.

1. a hypothetical type of neutrino that would obey a conservation law together with the tau lepton, with the total number of tau leptons and tau neutrinos minus the total number of their antiparticles remaining constant.

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tau neutrino British  

noun

1. physics a type of neutrino associated with tau particles

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tau neutrino Scientific  

/ tou,tô /

1. A type of neutrino associated with the tau particle, often created in particle interactions involving tau particles (such as the decay of these particles). The tau neutrino has a mass of zero or near zero, and has no electric charge.

2. See more at neutrino See Table at subatomic particle

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Example Sentences

Two sets of similar but heavier particles can pop into brief existence: the muon, muon neutrino, charm quark, and strange quark; and the tau, tau neutrino, top quark, and bottom quark.

From Science Magazine • Mar. 27, 2024

Therefore, if the particle is detected downstream from that source, it will have different probabilities of being an electron, muon or tau neutrino.

From Scientific American • Nov. 21, 2020

Because the muon and tau neutrinos consist of different superpositions of these three states, it is not correct to say the tau neutrino is either heavier or lighter than the electron or muon neutrinos.

From Scientific American • Nov. 21, 2020

Higgs boson is a spin 0 particle.This is the first elementary particle to be discovered since the tau neutrino in 2001. 

From Forbes • Jul. 5, 2012

Experimental evidence indicates that neutrinos come in three varieties: the electron neutrino, the muon neutrino and the tau neutrino.

From Time Magazine Archive