There is so much that we do not yet know about neutrinos. Neutrinos are very light, chargeless, and elusive particles that are involved in a process called beta decay. Understanding this process may reveal the origin of matter in the universe.
Beta decay is a type of radioactive decay that involves a neutron converting into a proton emitting an electron and an antineutrino. Beta decay is very common—it occurs about a dozen of times per second in, for example, a banana. There might also be an ultra-rare kind of beta decay that emits two electrons but no neutrinos.
Nuclear physicists around the world are searching for this neutrinoless-double beta decay (NLDBD) in different nuclei. The interest in these decays arises from their potential to reveal unsolved mysteries related to the universe’s creation of matter. They can also provide hints toward our understanding of the currently unknown mass of neutrinos.
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