I'm really curious on this subject and I want to know if neutrinos have mass. I know they are a subatomic particle, but how much mass.
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$\begingroup$ Related: physics.stackexchange.com/q/139 (where I actually answer this question in a different context). $\endgroup$– dmckee --- ex-moderator kittenMar 13, 2016 at 16:25
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$\begingroup$ Yes, neutrinos have mass; you can read the details here: ctp.berkeley.edu/neutrino/neutrino.html $\endgroup$– Peter DiehrMar 13, 2016 at 16:25
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1$\begingroup$ This question shows no research effort. $\endgroup$– ACuriousMind ♦Mar 13, 2016 at 16:26
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$\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of If a neutrino has a rest frame, why can't a photon have a rest frame as well? $\endgroup$– pfnueselMar 13, 2016 at 16:46
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5$\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the answer can easily be found elsewhere. No effort shown. $\endgroup$– garypMar 13, 2016 at 17:58
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1 Answer
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Neutrinos indeed do have mass, we don't know how much mass exactly, but ongoing research have put upper limits of about 0.3 eV [Thanks to Giorgio Comitini for providing a more accurate value]. Compare with e.g. an electron which has a mass of about $0.5 \times 10^{6} eV $.
We know that neutrinos have mass because (2015 Nobel Prize!) it has been found that they change from one family to another. There are three neutrino families. This 'oscillation' is only possible if they have mass, and if the mass for each family is different from another's (since they are identical in all other aspects.)
I'd recommend reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_neutrino_problem for a not-too-complicated introduction.
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1$\begingroup$ Just to be precise, the least upper bound on the electron neutrino mass as of 2015 seems to have been set at around 0,3 eV (ref. here link.aps.org/accepted/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.062502), while research in astrophysics and cosmology (2014, ref. here journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.051303) seem to suggest that 0,3 eV is the least upper bound on the sum of the masses of the three neutrinos. $\endgroup$ Mar 13, 2016 at 16:52
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