Physics World September 2014

Pointless or profound? The search for sterile neutrinos

The cover feature this month concerns "sterile neutrinos" – a hypothesized fourth kind of neutrino in addition to the familiar electron, muon and tau neutrinos. Sterile neutrinos are controversial – they have never been detected and we are not even sure if they exist at all. But if they do, sterile neutrinos could potentially solve a raft of unsolved problems in physics, including why neutrinos themselves have mass, what makes up dark matter and why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe. Also in this issue, Robert P Crease discusses a book by a theoretical-physicist-turned-philosopher that seeks to upend some long-standing views.

To enjoy the extra features of the digital magazine, use the magazine viewer below or open the digital magazine in full screen here.

You can read selected articles in HTML format on the website.