this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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How is the map data obtained?
Edit: Looked up the article. It seems they took known geological data and calculated the geo-antineutrino flux map based on measurements from detectors in Japan and Italy. Reactor antineutrinos are calculated from the international atomic energy agency data and assumptions on antineutrino rates.
In short, this is just a distance-from-nuclear reactors map
Magic
But they don’t interact with anything so how are we detecting them I think is what he is asking.
they do interact with matter, just incredibly weakly
They do interact with other stuff a little bit. It's very difficult to detect them because they hardly interact with anything, but it's not absolutely nothing so it's not impossible to detect them. This is well beyond my level of physics knowledge, but apparently one such interaction is a process called inverse beta decay. High-energy antineutrinos that crash in to protons produce a pair of particles that is much more easily detectable. A rule of physics called lepton conservation, which is about the fundamental building blocks of particles involved in a reaction not changing, makes this pair of detectable particles identifiable as being caused by an incoming antineutrino.
Are these the same particles they are trying to detect with the big ice detector thingee in Antarctica
Assuming you're referring to the IceCube neutrino observatory, yes (although I think it also does regular neutrinos, not just antineutrinos)