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HADRONIC MATHEMATICS, MECHANICS AND CHEMISTRY 27
Figure 1.8. A schematic illustration of the fact that the electron in beta decays can be emitted
in different directions. When the energy in the beta decay is computed with the inclusion of
the Coulomb interactions between the expelled (negatively charged) electron and the (positively
charged) nucleus at different expulsion directions, the nucleus acquires the “missing energy,”
without any energy left for the hypothetical neutrino. As we shall see in Chapter 6, rather than
being a disaster, the occurrence is at the foundation of a possible basically new scientific horizon
with implications sufficient to require studies over the entire third millennium.
troversies have occurred in regard to experimental claims of neutrino detection
voiced by large collaborations.
To begin, both neutrinos and quarks cannot be directly detected as physical
particles in our spacetime. Consequently, all claims on their existence are indirect,
that is, based on the detection of actual physical particles predicted by the
indicated theories. This occurrence is, per se, controversial. For instance, controversies
are still raging following announcements by various laboratories to have
“discovered” one or another quark, while in reality the laboratories discovered
physical particles predicted by a Mendeleev-type classification of particles, the
same classification being admitted by theories that require no quarks at all as
physical particles, as we shall indicate in Chapter 6.
In the 1980s, a large laboratory was built deep into the Gran Sasso mountain
in Italy to detect neutrinos coming from the opposite side of Earth (since the
mountain was used as a shield against cosmic rays). Following the investment of
large public funds and five years of tests, the Gran Sasso Laboratory released no
evidence of clear detection of neutrino originated events.
Rather than passing to a scientific caution in the use of public funds, the failure
of the Gran Sasso experiments to produce any neutrino evidence stimulated