Neutrino Communication

September 27th, 2011

Neutrinos. Faster than light and unaffected by ordinary matter, the idea of a neutrino communications transceiver could be a possibilty. So instead of dragging fibre optics across the seabed for miles and miles and all the technical challenges that brings to light, such technology could channel a stream of encoded neutrinos straight through the center of the earth, unhindered, without the need for focusing or amplification.

Current research into crystalline structures such as sapphire for detecting neutrinos is not exactly successful…yet. There is also a big problem in actually producing them, one theory (that we all are familiar with) is that if a crystal can detect such illusive particles and oscillate, then the same crystal if oscillated in the same manner, will produce neutrinos, these can then be encoded and directed more precisely than a laser.

“A neutrino beam a few centimetres wide and with the same energy as a 20-watt light bulb would interact with normal matter so infrequently, it would lose barely a few million billionths of its power as it journeyed through the Earth!” [1]

Oddly, Pirelli (Yes The Tyre Manufacturer) are providing funding for the project, they are a world leader in fibre optics, something that would be superceded by this technology so it makes sense they want a piece of it. Naturally there is sceptism but also enthusiasm out there on this subject, but all the same it’s kinda cool this sort of research is being undertaken, although the product of this research is unlikely to affect our lives for many years, if not decades, if at all.

[1] Matin Durrani – New Scientist vol 182 issue 2443

Entry Filed under: Technical