Discuss the properties of neutrino and its role in beta decay.

Explanation

(i) Neutrino role in beta decay : During beta decay, a neutron in the parent nucleus is converted to the daughter nuclei by emitting only electron as given by
`""_(Z)^(A)Xto""_(Z+1)^(A)Y+e^(-1)" "...(1)`
(ii) But the kinetic energy of electron coming out of the nucleus did not match with the experimental results. In alpha decay, the aplha particle takes only certain allowed discrete energies whereas in beta decay, beta particle (i.e, electron) have a continuous range of energies.
(iii) But the conservation of energy and momentum gives specific single values for electron energy and the recoiling nucleus Y.
(iv) It seems that the conservation of energy, momentum are violated and could not be explained why energy of beta particle have continuous range of values.
(v) Neutrino (little neutral one) since it has no charge, have very little mass.
Properties of neutrino : (1) It has zero charge
(2) It has an antiparticle called anti-neutrino.
(3) Recent experiments showed that the neutrino has very tiny mass.
(4) It interacts very weakly with the matter. Therefore, it is very difficult to detect. In fact, in every second, trillions of neutrinos coming from the sum are passing through our body without any interaction.