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
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