en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_(particle)
1 correction found
The latter was awarded his share of the prize for the experimental discovery of the electron neutrino.
Reines is generally credited with detecting the neutrino via reactor antineutrinos; Cowan–Reines detected the electron antineutrino, not the electron neutrino.
Full reasoning
This sentence mixes up the particle detected in the Cowan–Reines experiment. Frederick Reines's 1995 Nobel Prize citation was "for the detection of the neutrino", not specifically for the discovery of the electron neutrino. More importantly, the classic 1956 reactor experiment detected electron antineutrinos emitted by a nuclear reactor.
The original Physical Review paper is titled "Detection of the Free Antineutrino", and its abstract describes observing antineutrino absorption near a fission reactor. A modern NIST summary of reactor-neutrino work likewise describes the Savannah River work by Reines and collaborators as a reactor antineutrino experiment.
So the article's wording is too specific and points to the wrong member of the neutrino/antineutrino pair: Reines is credited for detecting the neutrino, and the historical experiment specifically detected the electron antineutrino, not the electron neutrino.
3 sources
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 1995 - NobelPrize.org
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1995 was awarded ... to Frederick Reines "for the detection of the neutrino".
- Detection of the Free Antineutrino | Physical Review
The antineutrino absorption reaction ... was observed ... near a powerful production fission reactor ...
- Fundamental Physics: A Precision Reactor Antineutrino Oscillation and Spectrum Measurement (PROSPECT) | NIST
The Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, PROSPECT, is the first short-baseline reactor neutrino experiment in the United States since the Savannah River experiments of Reines et al.