Mössbauer Antineutrinos: Recoilless Resonant Emission and Absorption of Electron Antineutrinos

Abstract

Basic questions concerning phononless resonant capture of monoenergetic electron antineutrinos (Mössbauer antineutrinos) emitted in bound-state beta-decay in the 3H - 3He system are discussed. It is shown that lattice expansion and contraction after the transformation of the nucleus will drastically reduce the probability of phononless transitions and that various solid-state effects will cause large line broadening. As a possible alternative, the rare-earth system 163Ho - 163Dy is favoured. Mössbauer-antineutrino experiments could be used to gain new and deep insights into several basic problems in neutrino physics.