Sudbury Neutrino Observatory - Experimental Results and Impact

Experimental Results and Impact

On 18 June 2001, the first scientific results of SNO were published, bringing the first clear evidence that neutrinos oscillate (i.e. that they can transmute into one another), as they travel in the sun. This oscillation in turn implies that neutrinos have non-zero masses. The total flux of all neutrino flavours measured by SNO agrees well with the theoretical prediction. Further measurements carried out by SNO have since confirmed and improved the precision of the original result.

Although Super-K had beaten SNO to the punch, having published evidence for neutrino oscillation as early as 1998, the Super-K results were not conclusive and did not specifically deal with solar neutrinos. SNO's results were the first to directly demonstrate oscillations in solar neutrinos. The results of the experiment had a major impact on the field, as evidenced by the fact that two of the SNO papers have been cited over 1,500 times, and two others have been cited over 750 times. In 2007, the Franklin Institute awarded the director of SNO Art McDonald with the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics.

Read more about this topic:  Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Famous quotes containing the words experimental, results and/or impact:

    Whenever a man acts purposively, he acts under a belief in some experimental phenomenon. Consequently, the sum of the experimental phenomena that a proposition implies makes up its entire bearing upon human conduct.
    Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)

    The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application.
    David Hume (1711–1776)

    Conquest is the missionary of valour, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.
    Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)