Neutrino

• Near-massless particles produced as side effect of particle decay, collision
• No interactions with electromagnetic force, resulting in general lack of interaction with normal matter
  • Somehow capable of being detected by handheld scanning devices by 24th century despite this
    • Only reference in Enterprise was shipboard, no reference in TOS
    • Some sort of locally-generated W/Z boson field?
• Due to non-interactive properties, occasionally used as means of communication in areas of otherwise-heavy interference (TNG: "The Enemy", "Sins of the Father")
  • Difficulty in generation and detection render this effective only in particular scenarios
• Common side-effect of subspace phenomena (TNG: "Clues"; DS9: "Emissary"; VOY: "Prime Factors", "Child's Play", "Shattered")
  • Likely as a result of particle decay from tetryons and other particles stable in subspace, unstable in normal space
  • Produced as radiation by some warp reactors, from both M/AM annihilation and subspace field production (ENT: ""Civilization"; TNG: "The Outcast"; DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels"; Star Trek: Insurrection)
    • Such drives can potentially be identified from such neutrino emissions (DS9: "For the Uniform"; VOY: "Dreadnought")
• Heavy levels of neutrino radiation can interfere with subspace communications (SCE Short Story: "Some Assembly Required")
  • Mechanism very unclear
• General properties