5 ms·

So... would this mean neutrinos are for sure not Majorana fermions? Because you'd think that a particle couldn't be its own anti-particle if it's anti-particle

So... would this mean neutrinos are for sure not Majorana fermions? Because you'd think that a particle couldn't be its own anti-particle if it's anti-particle has different properties, but quantum mechanics has surprised me before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorana_fermion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorana_fermion

aspenmayer 7y ago
Well it’s tricky, see. Normal science might try to solve a paradox logically, but maybe this is the universe solving a paradox by multiplying both sides of the equation by a reciprocal paradox? The different properties of the anti-particle result in a remainder which is where all of the something rather than nothing comes from.
- aspenmayer 7y ago
  I guess my metaphor was a little too fast and loose and lost some key detail. I don’t want to misrepresent the science so here’s a link that explains the math better than I can. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinor
T-A 7y ago
The known, light neutrinos would be Dirac, their massive counterparts Majorana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seesaw_mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seesaw_mechanism
0PingWithJesus 7y ago
It's a bit of a subtle point but Majorana anti-neutrinos are still right handed chiral particle and a Majorana neutrino is still a left handed particle. So any particle-antiparticle effects from Delta-CP (or anything else) just becomes a left-right chirality effect. That behavior is built right into the term "Delta-CP", CP stands for charge-parity, meaning it's related to both a charge flip (particle to anti-particle) or a parity flip (left to right). This isn't a full explanation but I'd have to go find some old text-books in order to provide a better one. Here's also a blog post that kinda sorta addresses the same point https://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/06/19/helicity-chirality-mass-and-the-higgs/ https://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/06/19/helicity-chirality...

aspenmayer 7y ago

Well it’s tricky, see. Normal science might try to solve a paradox logically, but maybe this is the universe solving a paradox by multiplying both sides of the equation by a reciprocal paradox? The different properties of the anti-particle result in a remainder which is where all of the something rather than nothing comes from.

aspenmayer 7y ago
I guess my metaphor was a little too fast and loose and lost some key detail. I don’t want to misrepresent the science so here’s a link that explains the math better than I can. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinor

T-A 7y ago

The known, light neutrinos would be Dirac, their massive counterparts Majorana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seesaw_mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seesaw_mechanism

0PingWithJesus 7y ago

It's a bit of a subtle point but Majorana anti-neutrinos are still right handed chiral particle and a Majorana neutrino is still a left handed particle. So any particle-antiparticle effects from Delta-CP (or anything else) just becomes a left-right chirality effect. That behavior is built right into the term "Delta-CP", CP stands for charge-parity, meaning it's related to both a charge flip (particle to anti-particle) or a parity flip (left to right). This isn't a full explanation but I'd have to go find some old text-books in order to provide a better one. Here's also a blog post that kinda sorta addresses the same point https://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/06/19/helicity-chirality-mass-and-the-higgs/ https://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/06/19/helicity-chirality...