2
Particles as Building Blocks of Matter
With the exception of dark matter and dark energy, scientists now have an
almost complete idea of what this universe is made of and what keeps it
together. There are fundamental building blocks and forces constantly at play.
If we think of the universe as a stage of space and time, the building blocks are
particles, who are like the “actors” in this stage. They play their role by using
the forces to communicate with each other. The neutrino happens to be one
of these particles, the tiniest among them that has emerged as a crucial actor in
this story. It has not only rescued the laws of physics when they were in danger
of falling apart under the weight of observations but it has also ushered in a
new era of understanding to observations on both cosmic and earthly scale.
This book is the story of this particle.
To understand the role of the neutrino in the evolution of our understanding of the Cosmos, we need to have a broad knowledge of what those
observations were and the background in which they related to the three parts
to the universe (space-time, particles, and forces). This and the following
beginning chapters of the book portray the key historical scenes in this
drama, each encapsulating years of dedicated scientific research that went in
to building this picture and how the neutrino had to make its appearance to
keep the rules of the drama coherent and consistent. It slowly became clear
that the neutrino not only lent consistency to the story of the universe but it
also played a key role in building it to its present stage. This is an amazingly
profound story for a particle that is so tiny and so elusive.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. N. Mohapatra, The Neutrino Story: One Tiny Particle’s Grand Role in the Cosmos,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51846-2_2
7
Particles as Building Blocks of Matter
With the exception of dark matter and dark energy, scientists now have an
almost complete idea of what this universe is made of and what keeps it
together. There are fundamental building blocks and forces constantly at play.
If we think of the universe as a stage of space and time, the building blocks are
particles, who are like the “actors” in this stage. They play their role by using
the forces to communicate with each other. The neutrino happens to be one
of these particles, the tiniest among them that has emerged as a crucial actor in
this story. It has not only rescued the laws of physics when they were in danger
of falling apart under the weight of observations but it has also ushered in a
new era of understanding to observations on both cosmic and earthly scale.
This book is the story of this particle.
To understand the role of the neutrino in the evolution of our understanding of the Cosmos, we need to have a broad knowledge of what those
observations were and the background in which they related to the three parts
to the universe (space-time, particles, and forces). This and the following
beginning chapters of the book portray the key historical scenes in this
drama, each encapsulating years of dedicated scientific research that went in
to building this picture and how the neutrino had to make its appearance to
keep the rules of the drama coherent and consistent. It slowly became clear
that the neutrino not only lent consistency to the story of the universe but it
also played a key role in building it to its present stage. This is an amazingly
profound story for a particle that is so tiny and so elusive.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. N. Mohapatra, The Neutrino Story: One Tiny Particle’s Grand Role in the Cosmos,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51846-2_2
7