tau neutrino
E51187
The tau neutrino is a fundamental, electrically neutral lepton associated with the tau particle, interacting only via the weak force and gravity and playing a key role in neutrino oscillations.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| tau neutrino canonical | 6 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T401556 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tau neutrino Context triple: [Standard Model, containsParticle, tau neutrino]
-
A.
muon neutrino
The muon neutrino is a fundamental, electrically neutral lepton in the Standard Model associated with the muon, interacting only via the weak force and gravity.
-
B.
tau lepton
The tau lepton is a heavy, unstable elementary particle similar to the electron but with much greater mass, playing a key role in lepton physics and tests of the Standard Model.
-
C.
W boson
The W boson is a massive elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and is responsible for processes like beta decay in the Standard Model of particle physics.
-
D.
Z boson
The Z boson is a neutral elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and plays a central role in the electroweak theory of particle physics.
-
E.
K+ (charged kaon)
K⁺ (charged kaon) is a positively charged meson containing an up quark and an anti-strange quark, notable for its role in probing weak interactions and testing the Standard Model through rare decay processes.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tau neutrino Target entity description: The tau neutrino is a fundamental, electrically neutral lepton associated with the tau particle, interacting only via the weak force and gravity and playing a key role in neutrino oscillations.
-
A.
muon neutrino
The muon neutrino is a fundamental, electrically neutral lepton in the Standard Model associated with the muon, interacting only via the weak force and gravity.
-
B.
tau lepton
The tau lepton is a heavy, unstable elementary particle similar to the electron but with much greater mass, playing a key role in lepton physics and tests of the Standard Model.
-
C.
W boson
The W boson is a massive elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and is responsible for processes like beta decay in the Standard Model of particle physics.
-
D.
Z boson
The Z boson is a neutral elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and plays a central role in the electroweak theory of particle physics.
-
E.
K+ (charged kaon)
K⁺ (charged kaon) is a positively charged meson containing an up quark and an anti-strange quark, notable for its role in probing weak interactions and testing the Standard Model through rare decay processes.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
elementary particle
ⓘ
fermion ⓘ lepton ⓘ neutrino ⓘ |
| antiparticle | tau antineutrino ⓘ |
| antiparticleHelicityInWeakInteractions | predominantly right-handed ⓘ |
| baryonNumber | 0 ⓘ |
| belongsToGeneration | third lepton generation ⓘ |
| cosmologicalAbundance | relic background expected but undetected ⓘ |
| detectionMethod | charged-current interactions producing tau leptons ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | DONUT experiment ⓘ |
| discoveryLocation |
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
ⓘ
surface form:
Fermilab
|
| discoveryYear | 2000 ⓘ |
| doesNotInteractVia |
electromagnetic interaction
ⓘ
strong interaction ⓘ |
| electricCharge | 0 ⓘ |
| flavorEigenstateOf | weak interaction ⓘ |
| hasRestMass | nonzero but very small ⓘ |
| hasSpin | 1/2 ⓘ |
| helicityInWeakInteractions | predominantly left-handed ⓘ |
| interactionCrossSection | extremely small ⓘ |
| interactsVia |
gravity
ⓘ
weak interaction ⓘ |
| isChiralInStandardModel | left-handed only ⓘ |
| isColorless | true ⓘ |
| isDescribedBy |
Standard Model
ⓘ
surface form:
Standard Model of particle physics
|
| isFundamental | true ⓘ |
| isInvisibleInDetectors | directly undetectable; inferred from missing energy ⓘ |
| isNeutralLepton | true ⓘ |
| isPartnerOf | tau lepton ⓘ |
| isPointLikeAtCurrentScales | true ⓘ |
| isSubjectOf |
PMNS matrix measurements
ⓘ
neutrino mass hierarchy studies ⓘ |
| isWeaklyInteracting | true ⓘ |
| leptonFamilyNumber | tau lepton number ⓘ |
| leptonNumber | +1 ⓘ |
| massUpperLimit | a few eV/c^2 (order of magnitude) ⓘ |
| mixesWith |
electron neutrino
ⓘ
muon neutrino ⓘ |
| participatesIn | neutrino oscillations ⓘ |
| productionMechanism |
astrophysical processes
ⓘ
high-energy hadron collisions ⓘ tau lepton decay ⓘ |
| rightHandedComponent | not included in minimal Standard Model ⓘ |
| roleInAstrophysics | participates in supernova neutrino fluxes ⓘ |
| roleInCosmology | contributes to radiation density in early universe ⓘ |
| statistics | Fermi–Dirac statistics ⓘ |
| symbol | ν_τ ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: tau neutrino Description of subject: The tau neutrino is a fundamental, electrically neutral lepton associated with the tau particle, interacting only via the weak force and gravity and playing a key role in neutrino oscillations.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.