Instant Messaging With Neutrinos

An anonymous reader writes "A group of scientists has for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos – nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, 'Neutrino.' From the article: 'Many have theorized about the possible uses of neutrinos in communication because of one particularly valuable property: they can penetrate almost anything they encounter. If this technology could be applied to submarines, for instance, then they could conceivably communicate over long distances through water, which is difficult, if not impossible, with present technology. And if we wanted to communicate with something in outer space that was on the far side of a moon or a planet, our message could travel straight through without impediment.'"

Comments

Dead link

[gadzook33]

The link doesn't seem to work but the article is here

Re:Dead link

[base2_celtic]

Also here.

Re:Dead link

[FrootLoops]

The Science Daily article is much better; I wouldn't even bother with the ars technica one since it's short and misleading. For instance,

Neutrinos are nearly massless and travel very close to the speed of light, so they can pass through substances, including entire planets, with little disruption.

That neutrinos are nearly massless and travel close to the speed of light is not the reason they interact so little with other matter. For instance, photons are often stopped by pieces of paper yet they're massless and travel at the speed of light. Neutrinos (for whatever reason) are only affected by two of the four fundamental forces, the weak nuclear and gravity, leaving out the electromagnetic and strong nuclear forces. This limits their interactions significantly.

eventually, they could provide a stable alternative to the electromagnetic waves we use now.

The implication of replacing most current hardware with neutrino-based communication is almost certainly ludicrously optimistic. Neutrinos don't interact with other matter very often (kind of the point), so you have to send huge numbers of them to get your message heard. They're also hard to generate. The scientists actually say,

Neutrino communication systems would be much more complicated than today's systems, but may have important strategic uses.

implying that a few highly specialized communications systems might conceivably use neutrinos one day. Maybe in the future vastly improved neutrino detectors and generators could be constructed, but the sun generates large numbers of neutrinos constantly, so you'd at least have to get some filtering mechanisms or similar in place.

Re:Dead link

[TuringCheck]

Neutrinos are also generated in vast numbers by the fission reactors of the submarines that would most likely benefit from this communitation method.

Somehow I don't believe sending Morse code by rapidly turning on and off the reactor is a feasable way of communication ;-)

Re:Receiver works how?

[WaffleMonster]

If neutrinos can pass through thousands of miles of solid rock without apparently being affected by it, how are you going to make a receiving antenna of any practical size?

Well we know from the FTL neutrino saga that it can be done. The idea I believe is that if the beam can be focused enough you make up for it by sending a massive quantity of neutrinos and hoping that just one of them hits... A bit like a telescope taking a picture with exposure times on order of minutes to hours.

For the neutrino sources on earth I forget exactly how it works but the signature you get in the detector registers a double hit that allows you to separate it from noise of other sources so these things don't need to be burried under thousands of feet of rock either as they are normally.

Some crucial details left out

[Animats]

Some crucial details were left out.

The "transmitter" uses the Fermilab accelerator ring to generate neutrinos. 6km of particle accelerator.

The "receiver" is a neutrino detector the size of a large house.

The data rate is so low that it took 20 minutes to transmit one word.

Neutrinos still interact with other particles very infrequently. These researchers have no way around that. They just used a very powerful beam and a huge detector to pick up the very rare events. It's a stunt, not an advance.

Re:Will Neutrinos collide with other Neutrinos?

[chefmayhem]

Neutrinos can collide with other neutrinos. Thing is, it's just really rare. The probability for a neutrino to interact with normal matter is small. The probability for it to interact with other neutrinos is smaller still. But it is non-zero. The only time when you're likely to be able to measure this kind of interaction is during a supernova, when the dying star makes an incredible number of neutrinos all at once.

Re:Will Neutrinos collide with other Neutrinos?

[justforgetme]

Don't know about neutrino generation but the receiving end has its own limitations
the article talks about submarines and satellites, with the mass of current high efficiency neutrino detectors I'd say more like underwater city and moon colony. Also everything near or outside the atmosphere would have to deal with a hell of a lot noise...
Still, underground comms. Why not? It sure can become much more efficient than the idiotic cables that build the Internet today. Also judging from technology's progress it should be only about a couple of decades before you can walk around with a pocketable, battery powered neutrino I/O device. then were talking.