As cool as it would have been to use lasers that produce a beam of neutrinos, MIT researchers recently published two papers that seem to reduce the likelihood that such lasers are possible. In a review article of [Ana Maria Rey] et al. These two articles are investigated in more detail. Although the concept behind a neutrino laser is quite simple, using the same superradiance effect involving a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) that allows photon stimulation to result in synchronized steering of the emitted photons, the idea of using a radioisotope BEC that naturally emits neutrinos in this way has now been effectively shot down. The problem lies in making the leap from photons with BEC and applying it to a radioisotope BEC. While photons are relatively slow and low energy at only 1 eV, a neutrino is extremely fast and at more than 1 MeV it consequently has a much greater kinetic effect on the particle that emits it. Unlike a photon emitted by an atom, this leaves very little time for the other particles in the BEC to be affected. This first scenario is covered in the (paid) article of [Yu-Kun Lu] et al. Their calculations show that superradiance cannot occur with neutrinos in a BEC and therefore a laser is impossible. In the second article (also paid) of [Hanzhen Lin] et al. The question arises as to whether the assumption that a BEC of a radioisotope will improve radioactive decay at all, to which the answer is a resounding “no”. Although it is impossible to prove anything negative with the scientific method, these two studies have slammed a couple of doors on the neutrino laser concept.
