Most cosmic rays are generated in our galaxy by the collapse and resulting explosions of supernovae. When a cosmic ray comes into contact with the earth's atmosphere, it interacts with the air nucleus, at approximately 15 kilometers. The interaction produces energetic particles such as hadrons and leptons, with resulting neutrinos. The muon is produced after the pion comes to rest and then decays with the emission of an electron. In each decay, neutrinos are also included in the resultant.
Neutrinos are an abundant source that can be found in numerous decay processes.
Millions of neutrinos are passing through us every second. These neutrinos are studied through the use of energy and position detectors. Once the neutrinos have traversed the detectors, the data recorded is then analyzed to try and solve for the precise measurements of the Weinberg Angle. One of the two main goals of the NuTeV Experiment is the precise measurement of the Weinberg Angle. The Weinberg Angle is a parameter describing mixing in the electroweak standard model.