India-based Neutrino Observatory is included by the Planning Commission as a mega science project under the 11th five-Year Plan. In this context, consider the following statements: 1. Neutrinos are chargeless elementary particles that travel close to the speed of light. 2. Neutrinos are created in nuclear reactions of beta decay. 3. Neutrinos have a negligible, but nonzero mass. 4. Trillions of Neutrinos pass through human body every second. Which of the statements given above are correct ?

All four statements are correct. Experimental and theoretical studies establish that neutrinos carry no electric charge and travel at speeds very close to light, as they possess a very small but nonzero rest mass [1]. Neutrinos were originally postulated to account for missing energy in beta decay and are routinely produced in nuclear reactions and beta decays (e.g., in the Sun and reactors), which is the basis for many detection experiments [2]. Their rest masses are extremely tiny (nonzero), giving rise to phenomena like neutrino oscillation observed experimentally [2]. Neutrinos are extremely abundant—second only to photons in cosmic abundance—so vast numbers (on the order of trillions) pass through a human body every second [3].

Sources

1. [1] https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/astro/programs/physics-of-the-cosmos/events/2025/fourth-tdamm-workshop/posters/GhSaleh.pdf
2. [2] https://proceedings.jacow.org/a07/PAPERS/WEYMA02.pdf
3. [3] https://environmentclearance.nic.in/writereaddata/Online/EDS/16_Mar_2018_1223215803S63YIWLConceptualPlanRADMPandEMP.pdf