Nuclear, Particle and Weak Interaction Physics of the Big Bang and Stellar Collapse

中微子是幽灵般的粒子，与物质的相互作用非常弱。因此，令人惊讶的是，中微子可能是早期宇宙和大质量恒星引力坍缩以及相关超新星爆炸等天体物理环境中的主要原因。中微子可以影响甚至导致这些环境中元素的产生，从大爆炸中的氦核和氘核到新生成的中子星星表面最后一层物质中的碘核、金核和铀核。这一切之所以能够发生，是因为中微子的数量巨大，足以弥补它们微弱的个体相互作用。

Neutrinos are ghostlike particles that experience notoriously weak interactions with matter. So, it may come as a surprise that neutrinos likely are responsible for much of the heavy lifting in astrophysical environments like the early universe and the gravitational collapse of massive stars and associated supernova explosions. Neutrinos can influence and even bring about the creation of the elements in these environments, from helium and deuterium nuclei in the Big Bang to iodine, gold, and uranium nuclei in the last wisp of material blown off the surface of a newly created neutron star. All this can happen because neutrinos more than make up for their feeble individual interactions with huge numbers.