OPERA catches fifth tau neutrino

The OPERA experiment’s study of tau neutrino appearance has reached the level of “discovery.” Today the OPERA experiment in Italy announced a discovery related to the behavior of neutrinos. Light, rarely interacting particles called neutrinos come in three types, called “flavors”: electron, muon and tau. When an electron neutrino collides with a detector, it produces an electron; a muon neutrino produces a muon; and a tau neutrino produces a tau. In 1998, the Super-Kamiokande experimen...