An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Incapable of producing offspring; not producing offspring (Dictionary.com).

M.Fr. stérile "not producing fruit," from L. sterilis "barren, unproductive, unfruitful," from PIE *ster- "stiff, rigid, firm, strong."

Satarvan, literally "mule-like, resembling a mule," from setar, variant of astar, → mule, + -van similarity and attribution suffix.

A hypothetical type of → neutrino which does not participate in the → weak interaction. It would arise only from ordinary neutrinos oscillating into a sterile form (singlet, right handed → helicity). The sterile neutrino is a candidate for the → dark matter. Sterile neutrinos might have been produced in primordial plasma in the → early Universe. The idea of sterile neutrino was first proposed by Bruno Pontecorvo (1967) in a paper which also discussed neutrino oscillations.

→ sterile; → neutrino.