Question

If we can trap positrons and antiprotons (negatrons) with magnetic fields, can we trap antineutrinos with them?

Answer 1

That is quite a thinker. Even though positrons and antiprotons can be can be captured with magnetic fields, that is because even as anti-matter, they still have charge, which is capable of being caught within a magnetic field. The problem is that antineutrinos, while being an anti-matter particle, does not have any charge associated with it, so it is quite possibly hard to trap the antineutrino with just a magnetic field itself. Take for example the neutrino. That is the matter particle counterpart of the antineutrino. That itself cannot be stopped by magnetic fields, and requires humongous amounts of lead just to try to stop it. So if by logical deduction alone, I would not believe that the antineutrino can be stopped by magnetic fields myself, but that is just speculation on my part through simple, though I'm not sure how accurate, logical deduction.

Answer 2

Thanks for the input. I figured the answer would be no because all flavors of neutrinos are only affected by the weak nuclear force and gravity, not electromagnetic.

Answer 3

That is what I was thinking as well. I'm glad that you came to the same conclusion as I did.

Answer 4

:)