The problem with beta decay
The prehistory of the neutrino starts in 1896 when Henri Becquerel discovered some strange radiation emitted by uranium salts [Bec96]. Isolating the radium, Pierre and Marie Curie named this new phenomenon “radioactivity”. Ernest Rutherford showed that there were two types of radioactivity, alpha and beta, and the Curies identified the beta radiation as electrons.
The beta decay, i.e. the decay of a nucleus AZX into a nucleus AZ+1X with the emission of an electron, was experimentally studied from 1910. In 1914, James Chadwick noted for the first time that the energy spectrum of the electron was continuous, and not the mass difference between the two nuclei [Cha14]. Later, in 1927, Charles Drummond Ellis and William Alfred Wooster [Ell27] made a decisive experiment on radium E (bismuth-210), using a calorimetric technique giving direct proof that the electron spectrum was continuous. To face this contradiction, several important physicists, among them the famous Niels Bohr, suggested iconoclastically that energy was not conserved.
The birth of neutrino
In December 1930, Wolfgang Pauli tried a desperate rescue of “the energy conservation principle”. He suggested that the electron is accompanied by a light, neutral, weakly interacting particle which takes away part of the energy [Pau30]. He called it “neutron” but after the discovery of the neutron by Chadwick in 1932 [Cha32], Enrico Fermi used the term “neutrino” which was immediately accepted by the community. At the Solvay conference in Brussels, in October 1933, Pauli presented “officially” the neutrino [Pau33], with some properties yet to be confirmed: a very small mass (possibly null), a probable spin 1/2. Incorporating the neutrino hypothesis, Fermi built immediately the theory of beta disintegration, which describes the decay of a neutron into a proton, emitting an electron and a “neutrino” [Fer33] (later this “neutrino” will be identified as a “antineutrino”).
Neutrino is a ghostly particle
In 1935, Maria Goeppert-Mayer calculated the (very small) probability of the simultaneous emission of two electrons and two neutrinos (the distinction between neutrinos and antineutrinos was not yet made) [Goe35], the double beta disintegration, observed experimentally much later in the 60’s.
In 1937, Ettore Majorana published his symmetric theory of electron and positron [Maj37], extended immediately to the neutrino by Giulio Racah [Rac37]. Today, we know that the neutrino is the only particle which could be identical to its antiparticle (Majorana type) and several experiments are actively looking for double beta decay without neutrino emission.
In 1934, Hans Bethe and Rudolf Peierls had showed that the cross section (probability of interaction) between a neutrino and a proton should be extremely small and that there was no practicable way of observing the neutrino [Bet34]. In spite of this, many physicists tried, unsuccessfully, to observe the neutrino, until the 50’s. A brilliant idea was proposed in 1946 by Bruno Pontecorvo [Pon46]: the use the inverse beta-process (νe + Z → e⁻ + (Z+1)) to detect the neutrinos, mentioning the famous chlorine-argon reaction (νe + 37Cl →e⁻ + 37Ar followed by the observed 37Ar decay), and quoting the Sun and nuclear reactors as significant sources of neutrinos.
The first detection
It is only in the 50’s that the combination of high intense neutrino sources and large detectors could open the door towards the observation of the neutrino. After a first attempt close to the Hanford reactor in 1953 [Rei53], with a limited statistics, Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan succeeded to observe the neutrino in 1956 at the Savannah River power plant [Cow56,Rei56]. The high neutrino flux (in fact antineutrinos) was provided by the fission reactions in the core of the plant, and the detector measured the reaction (νe + p → e⁺ + n).
Neutrino properties under study
From then on, neutrinos were fully part of the game of particle physics. In 1957, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang suggested that parity was not conserved in beta-decay and proposed a two-component theory of the neutrino [Lee57]. A few weeks later, Chien-Shiung Wu and her collaborators observed experimentally that parity was not conserved in beta decay [Wu57]. At the end of 1957, Maurice Goldhaber and his collaborators found in a beautiful experiment that the neutrino was left-handed (had a negative helicity) [Gol58].
The idea that the neutrino coming from the muon decay would be different from the neutrino associated to the electron emerged in the late 50’s in two papers by Pontecorvo [Pon59b] and Schwartz [Sch60]. Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger built in 1962 an experiment at the Brookhaven accelerator and discovered the muon-neutrino [Dan62].
The first atmospheric neutrinos coming from the interaction of cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere were observed in 1965 in India and South Africa [Ach65b,Rei65b].
Neutrinos from the Sun
From the 60’s, neutrinos were connecting two domains: particle physics when producing neutrino beams to explore the deep structure of the matter; astrophysics when studying the many sources, as cosmic rays, Sun, supernovae, …
In 1938, Hans Bethe and others developed the theory of solar fusion and energy production in stars, starting with the primary proton-proton fusion in the core of the Sun [Bet38,Bet39]. This reaction, which produces electron-neutrinos, was followed by a complicated cycle of nuclear reactions producing also electron-neutrinos. After the first solar models developed by John Bahcall in 1964 [Bah64], Ray Davis revisited the idea to use the famous radiochemical chlorine-argon reaction (νe + 37Cl →e⁻ + 37Ar followed by the observed 37Ar decay) to observe solar neutrinos in the Homestake mine [Dav64]. The first results, in 1968, showed a deficit of observed solar neutrinos compared to the predictions [Dav68]. This was the start of the solar neutrino problem.
Neutrino families and neutrino oscillation
In 1957, Bruno Pontecorvo proposed that neutrinos could oscillate in to antineutrinos when propagating [Pon57]. In 1962, after the discovery of the second neutrino family, Maki, Nakagawa and Sakata raised the idea of flavor mixing for the neutrinos [Mak62]. Pontecorvo revived his initial idea in 1967 and discussed the oscillation between electron-neutrino and muon-neutrino [Pon67]. Oscillation would imply that neutrinos are massive.
The new accelerators built at CERN and Brookhaven from the early 60’s allowed to build intense neutrino beams. These beams were used to study the properties of the neutrino interactions. The first great success came in 1973 with the discovery of neutral currents (interactions of neutrinos with matter (quarks or electrons) by Z exchange) by the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN [Has73a,Has73b]. This discovery was crucial for establishing the electroweak theory (unification of weak and electromagnetic interaction). The neutrino beams were also used to study deep inelastic scattering and test quantum chromodynamics (QCD).
In 1975, at SLAC, the team led by Martin Perl discovered the third charged lepton, the tau, announcing the third neutrino, the tau-neutrino ντ [Per75] and the third particle family. The tau-neutrino ντ was first directly observed in 2001 [Kod01]. In 1989, the LEP at CERN showed that there were only three neutrino families (to be precise three families of active neutrinos), establishing the standard model of particle physics [Aar89,Akr89,Dec89].
The question of the mass of the neutrino (0 or very small) is still at the center of many theoretical and experimental questions. The minimal standard model of particle physics requires a null mass. So a mass for the neutrino gives indications towards extensions of the model. From the experimental side, there are experiments trying to measure directly the neutrino mass using the beta decay of tritium, experiments looking for neutrino oscillation, experiments looking for double beta decay without neutrinos. From the theoretical side, the most popular model is the see-saw mechanism [Min77,Gel79,Yan79]. This mechanism explains why the neutrino masses are so much smaller than the masses of the other leptons and quarks: it generates three very massive right-handed neutrinos which are sterile (do not interact). Still alive, this mechanism has still to be proven.
Neutrinos from supernovae… and from atmosphere
In February 1987, the detectors Kamiokande in Japan and IMB in USA observed approximately 20 interactions due to neutrinos coming from the explosion of the supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud which occurred 150000 years ago [Hir87,Bio87]. After the paper by Baade and Zwicky [Baa34], such a great event was predicted by George Gamow in 1941 [Gam41], and founded neutrino astronomy.
At the end of the 80’s, the same detectors Kamiokande and IMB showed a possible anomaly in the behavior of atmospheric neutrinos (produced by interactions of cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere): observing less muon-neutrinos than predicted [Hir88,Cas91]. This result, not confirmed by other experiments like the Fréjus one, lasted for almost 10 years. In 1998, the SuperKamiokande detector, 10 times bigger than Kamiokande, showed without ambiguity that muon-neutrinos coming from the antipodes had been partially transformed into tau-neutrinos via the oscillation mechanism [Fuk98b]. This great result solved the atmospheric neutrino anomaly and proved the existence of the neutrino oscillation and consequently that neutrinos were massive.
Explosion of neutrino studies
In 1989, the Kamiokande detector gave a new important result: the direct detection of the high energy solar neutrinos (so-called boron-8 neutrinos), but with a flux reduction compared to solar models which confirmed the solar neutrino deficit [Hir89]. In 1992, the radiochemical GALLEX experiment (30 tons of gallium at the Gran Sasso laboratory) detected for the first time the solar neutrinos produced in the primary proton-proton fusion in the core of the Sun; but the measured flux was still less than predicted by solar models [Ans92]. The solar neutrino problem was finally solved in 2001 by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment (SNO). Using 1000 tons of heavy water which allowed to observe all the neutrino flavors, they showed that part of the solar electron-neutrinos had been transformed into muon-neutrinos or tau-neutrinos [Ahm01,Ahm02]. Until SNO, detectors were sensitive essentially to electron-neutrinos. The two messages of SNO were that a) solar models are right; and b) solar electron-neutrinos oscillate between the core of the Sun and the Earth; this was the second proof of the existence of the oscillation mechanism after that observed in atmospheric neutrinos. To be precise, the solar electron-neutrinos are modified by a mechanism involving not only oscillation, but also an adiabatic transformation in the matter of the Sun predicted in 1985 by Lincoln Wolfenstein, Stanislas Mikheyev and Alexei Smirnov [Wol78,Mik85]. The corresponding oscillation parameters have been confirmed by the KamLAND experiment studying electron-antineutrinos produced by nuclear reactors [Egu03].
A new source of natural neutrinos was observed by the KamLAND experiment in 2005: the geoneutrinos coming from the radioactivity in the crust and mantle of the Earth [Ara05]. Statistically marginal, the first observation was confirmed in 2010 by KamLAND and Borexino at Gran Sasso [Bel10].
In 2010, the OPERA experiment at Gran Sasso observed directly the first tau-neutrino candidate produced in a muon-neutrino beam produced at CERN, 732 km away, confirming the oscillation [Aga10].
Having discovered the oscillation mechanism, we come back to the mixing matrix between the flavor eigenstates of two neutrinos and the mass eigenstates proposed by Maki, Nakagawa, Sakata and Pontecorvo (extended later to three neutrinos and parametrized in the so-called PMNS matrix). After the two mixing angles obtained in atmospheric neutrinos (θ23) and solar neutrinos (θ12), physicists began looking for the third angle (θ13). This angle was measured from 2011: a) in an accelerator experiment in Japan, T2K, observing the oscillation between muon-neutrino and electron-neutrino on a distance of 280 km [Abe11a]; b) in reactor experiments observing the oscillation of antineutrinos at a distance of ~1 km; Double Chooz [Abe11b], in France, Daya Bay [An12], in China, followed by RENO [Ahn12], in Korea.
The cosmological neutrinos, produced during the Big Bang, 13.6 billion years ago, constitute with the photons the most numerous particles in the Universe. Studying the cosmic microwave background (the mass of neutrinos has an effect on the CMB power spectrum), the Planck satellite gave in 2013 an upper limit on the total mass of neutrinos of about 1 eV [Ade13].
Already in 1960, Markov had anticipated that high energy neutrinos coming from galactic or extragalactic astrophysical sources could be detected using very large volumes of water, using the Cerenkov technique [Mar60]. In the 70’s, the first proposals were made, like the Dumand project [Rob76]. The first observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been done in 2013 by the IceCube experiment: a volume of about 1 km3 of ice at the South Pole instrumented with photomultipliers [Aar13a,Aar13b]. In 2018, high-energy neutrinos were observed by IceCube simultaneously with high-energy gammas from a flaring blazar, opening multi-messenger observation from astrophysical objects [Ice18]. In 2025, the KM3NeT collaboration, in the Mediterranean Sea, observed a cosmic neutrino of about 120 PeV energy [Aie25].
In 2014, the Borexino experiment at Gran Sasso observed directly the solar neutrinos produced in the primary proton-proton fusion in the core of the Sun (GALLEX had observed an integral flux) and completed the spectroscopy of solar neutrinos [Bel14]. In 2020, Borexino observed for the first time the solar neutrinos from the so-called CNO cycle [Ago20], which is responsible of only 2% of the energy of the Sun, but which is dominant in more massive stars.
In 2017, the first observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering has been performed by the COHERENT collaboration [Aki17], providing new opportunities to study neutrino properties.
There have been many attempts to measure directly the electron-neutrino mass in beta-decay experiments. The best limit is now that of the Katrin experiment which gave recently an upper value of 0.8 eV [Ake22].
The (hi)story is still continuing: we do not know yet all the properties of the neutrinos, in particular their mass; we do not know if the neutrino is its own antiparticle (Majorana type); we do not know their precise role in supernova explosions; we do not know how much are produced in violent phenomena in the Universe; we have not yet observed cosmological neutrinos, produced 13.6 billion years ago during the big bang…
References
| Author(s) | Title | Reference | Key-words | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aar13a | M.G. Aartsen et al., IceCube coll. | First Observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube | Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (2013) 021103; arXiv:1304.5356 | historical vhe milestonebib overviewbib vhebib | ||
| Aar13b | M.G. Aartsen et al., IceCube coll. | Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector | Science 342 (2013) 1242856 ; arXiv:1311.5238 | vhe milestonebib overviewbib | ||
| Aar89 | P. Aarnio et al., DELPHI Collaboration | Measurement of the mass and the width of the Z particle from multi-hadronic final states produced in e+e- annihilations | Phys. Lett. 231 (1989) 539 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib propbib plotbib | ||
| Abe11a | K. Abe et al., T2K collaboration | Indication of electron neutrino appearance from an accelerator-produced off-axis muon-neutrino beam | Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011) 041801; arXiv:1106.2822 | historical accelerator oscillation properties milestonebib overviewbib reactorbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Abe11b | Y. Abe et al., Double Chooz collaboration | Indication for the disappearance of reactor electron antineutrinos in the Double Chooz experiment | Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (2012) 131801; arXiv:1112.6353 | historical reactor oscillation properties milestonebib overviewbib reactorbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Ach65b | G.V. Achar et al. | Detection of muons produced by cosmic ray neutrinos deep underground | Phys. Lett. 18 (1965) 196 | historical atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib | ||
| Ade13 | P.A.R. Ade et al. | Planck 2013 Results. XVI. Cosmological Parameters | Astronomy and Astrophysics 571 (2014) A16; arXiv:1303.5076 | historical cosmological milestonebib overviewbib cosmobib plotbib | ||
| Ade90 | L. Adeva et al., L3 Collaboration | Measurement of Z decay to hadrons and precise detemination of the number of neutrino species | Phys. Lett. 237 (1990) 136 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib propbib | ||
| Aga10 | N. Agafonova et al. | Observation of a first tau-neutrino candidate in the OPERA experiment in the CNGS neutrino beam | Phys. Lett. B691 (2010) 138; arXiv:1006.1623 | historical numbernu oscillation accelerator milestonebib overviewbib | ||
| Ago20 | M. Agostini et al., Borexino Collaboration | Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun | Nature 587 (2020) 577; arXiv:2006.15115 | historical solar milestonebib overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Ahm01 | Q.R. Ahmad et al., SNO collaboration | Measurement of the rate ne + d → p + p + e- interactions produced by 8B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory | Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 071301; arXiv:nucl-ex/0106015 | historical solar oscillation msw milestonebib overviewbib solarbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Ahm02 | Q.R. Ahmad et al., SNO collaboration | Direct evidence for neutrino flavor transformation from neutral-current interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory | Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 011301; arXiv:nucl-ex/0204008 | historical solar oscillation msw milestonebib overviewbib solarbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Ahn12 | J.K. Ahn et al., RENO Collaboration | Observation of reactor electron antineutrino disappearance in the RENO experiment | Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (2012) 191802; arXiv:1204.0626 | historical reactor oscillation properties milestonebib overviewbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Aie25 | S. Aiello et al., KM3NeT collaboration | Observation of an ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrino with KM3NeT | Nature 638 (2025) 376 | historical vhe milestonebib vhebib overviewbib | ||
| Ake22 | M. Aker et al. (KATRIN collaboration) | Direct neutrino-mass measurement with sub-eV sensibility | Nat. Phys. 18, 160–166 (2022) | propbib properties mass overviewbib | ||
| Aki17 | D. Akimov et al. | Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering | Science 357 (2017) 1123; arXiv:1708.01294 | properties overviewbib | ||
| Akr89 | M.Z. Akrawy et al., OPAL Collaboration | Measurement of the Z mass and width the OPAL detector at LEP | Phys. Lett. 231 (1989) 530 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib propbib plotbib | ||
| An12 | F.P. An et al., Daya Bay collaboration | Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at Daya Bay | Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (2012) 171803; arXiv:1203.1669 | historical reactor oscillation properties milestonebib overviewbib reactorbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Ans92 | P. Anselmann et al., Gallex collaboration | Solar neutrinos observed by GALLEX at Gran Sasso | Phys. Lett. B285 (1992) 376 | historical solar milestonebib overviewbib solarbib plotbib | ||
| Ara05 | T. Araki et al., KamLAND collaboration | Experimental investigation of geologically produced antineutrinos with KamLAND | Nature 436 (2005) 499 | historical geoneutrino geobib milestonebib overviewbib | ||
| Ara05b | T. Araki et al., KamLAND collaboration | Measurement of neutrino oscillation with KamLAND: evidence of spectral distortion | Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005) 081801 | reactor oscillation solar overviewbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Ash04 | Y. Ashie et al., Super-Kamiokande collaboration | Evidence for an oscillatory signature in atmospheric neutrino oscillations | Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 101801 | historical atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Baa34 | W. Baade and F. Zwicky | On super-novae | Proc. of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 20 (1934) 254 , Proc. of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 20 (1934) 259 | historical supernova overviewbib | ||
| Bah64 | J.N. Bahcall | Solar neutrinos. I. Theoretical | Phys. Rev. Lett. 12 (1964) 300 | historical solar overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Bec96 | H. Becquerel | 1) Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence; 2) Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents | Comptes-Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 122 (1896) 420 (24 février 1896) & Comptes-Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 122 (1896) 501 (2 mars 1896) - Details in a paper, in French, by J.L. Basdevant The first paper is translated in English in « A. Pais, Inward Bound, Oxford University Press, 1986 | historical betadecay milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib | ||
| Bel10 | G. Bellini et al. | Observation of Geo-neutrinos | Phys. Lett. B687 (2010) 299; arXiv:1003.0284 | historical geoneutrino geobib overviewbib | ||
| Bel14 | G. Bellini et al., Borexino collaboration | Neutrinos from the primary proton-proton fusion in the Sun | Nature 512 (2014) 383 | historical solar milestonebib overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Bet34 | H. Bethe and R. Peierls | The neutrino | Nature 133 (1934) 532 | historical properties detection milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib discovbib | ||
| Bet38 | H.A. Bethe and C.L. Critchfield | The formation of deuterons by proton combination | Phys. Rev. 54 (1938) 248 | historical solar overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Bet39 | H.A. Bethe | Energy production in stars | Phys. Rev. 55 (1939) 434 | historical solar milestonebib overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Bio87 | R.M. Bionta et al., IMB collaboration | Observation of a neutrino burst in coincidence with supernova SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud | Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 1494 | historical supernova milestonebib overviewbib supernbib plotbib | ||
| Cas91 | D. Casper et al. | Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino composition with the IMB-3 detector | Phys. Rev. Lett. 66 (1991) 2561 | atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib | ||
| Cha14 | J. Chadwick | Intensitatsverteilung im magnetischen spektrum der beta-strahlen von radium B+C | Verhandlungen der deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft 16 (1914) 383 | historical betadecay milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib energybib plotbib | ||
| Cha32 | J. Chadwick | Possible existence of a neutron | Nature 129 (1932) 312 | historical milestonebib overviewbib | ||
| Cow56 | C.L. Cowan, F. Reines, F.B. Harrison, H.W. Cruse and A.D. McGuire | Detection of the free neutrino: a confirmation | Science 124 (1956) 103, July 20, 1956 - Reprint in “Neutrino Physics”, ed. by K. Winter, Cambridge University Press, 1991 | historical detection milestonebib overviewbib discovbib reactorbib plotbib | ||
| Dan62 | G. Danby, J.M. Gaillard, K. Goulianos, L.M. Lederman, N. Mistry, M. Schwartz and J. Steinberger | Observation of high energy neutrino reactions and the existence of two kinds of neutrinos | Phys. Rev. Lett. 9 (1962) 36 - Reprint in “Neutrino Physics”, ed. by K. Winter, Cambridge University Press, 1991 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib numubib accelbib plotbib | ||
| Dav64 | R. Davis, Jr. | Solar neutrinos. II. Experimental | Phys. Rev. Lett. 12 (1964) 303 | historical solar overviewbib solarbib nuantinubib | ||
| Dav68 | R. Davis, D.S. Harmer, K.C. Hoffman | Search for neutrinos from the Sun | Phys. Rev. Lett. 20 (1968) 1205 | historical solar milestonebib overviewbib nuantinubib plotbib | ||
| Dec89 | D. Decamp et al., ALEPH Collaboration | Determination of the number of light neutrino species | Phys. Lett. 231 (1989) 519 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib propbib plotbib | ||
| Egu03 | K. Eguchi et al. | First results from KamLAND: Evidence for reactor antineutrino disappearance | Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 021802 | reactor oscillation solar milestonebib overviewbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Ell27 | C.D. Ellis and W.A. Wooster | The Average Energy of Disintegration of Radium E | Proc. Roy. Soc. A 117 (1927) 109 | historical betadecay milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib oscbib energybib plotbib | ||
| Fer33 | E. Fermi | Tentativo di una teoria dell’emissione dei raggi beta | Ricerca Scientifica 4 (1933) 491 - Reprint in ”Enrico Fermi, Collected papers, vol. I, The University of Chicago Press” | historical betadecay milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib | ||
| Fuk96 | Y. Fukuda et al. | Solar neutrino data covering solar cycle 22 | Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 (1996) 1683 | solar overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Fuk98b | Y. Fukuda et al., Super-Kamiokande collaboration | Evidence for oscillation of atmospheric neutrinos | Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 1562 | historical atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Gam41 | G. Gamow and M. Schoenberg | Neutrino theory of stellar collapse | Phys. Rev. 59 (1941) 539 | historical supernova milestonebib overviewbib supernbib | ||
| Gar57 | Richard L. Garwin, Leon M. Lederman and Marcel Weinrich | Observations of the failure of conservation of parity and charge conjugation in meson decays | Phys. Rev. 105 (1957) 1415 | historical properties betadecay milestonebib overviewbib discovbib propbib | ||
| Gel79 | M. Gell-Mann, P. Ramond and R. Slansky | Complex Spinors and Unified Theories | arXiv:1306.4669Supergravity, ed. by D. Freedman and P. van Nieuwenhuizen, North-Holland (1979) p. 315, retro-print & arXiv:hep-ph/9809459Talk by P. Ramond "The family group and Grand Unified Theories" at the 19th Sanibel Symposium, February 1979, retro-print | historical mass theory milestonebib overviewbib propbib theorybib | ||
| Goe35 | M. Goeppert-Mayer | Double-beta disintegration | Phys. Rev. 48 (1935) 512 | historical doublebeta overviewbib propbib | ||
| Gol58 | M. Goldhaber, L. Grodzins, A. Sunyar | Helicity of neutrinos | Phys. Rev. 109 (1958) 1015 | historical properties milestonebib overviewbib discovbib propbib theorybib plotbib | ||
| Has73a | F.J. Hasert et al. | Search for elastic muon-neutrino electron scattering | Phys. Lett. B46 (1973) 121 – Received Jul. 2, 1973 | historical accelerator neutralc milestonebib overviewbib accelbib plotbib | ||
| Has73b | F.J. Hasert et al. | Observation of neutrino-like interactions without muon or electron in the Gargamelle neutrino experiment | Phys. Lett. B46 (1973) 138 – Received July 23, 1973 | historical accelerator neutralc milestonebib overviewbib accelbib plotbib | ||
| Hir87 | K.S. Hirata et al., Kamiokande collaboration | Observation of a neutrino burst from the supernova SN1987A | Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 1490 | historical supernova milestonebib overviewbib supernbib plotbib | ||
| Hir88 | K.S. Hirata et al., Kamiokande collaboration | Experimental study of the atmospheric neutrino flux | Phys. Lett. B205 (1988) 416 | atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib | ||
| Hir89 | K.S. Hirata et al. | Observation of 8B solar neutrinos in the Kamiokande-II detector | Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 (1989) 16 | solar milestonebib overviewbib solarbib | ||
| Ice18 | Ice Cube, Fermi-LAT, Magic, Agile, HESS, … collaborations | Multi-messenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922 | Science 361 (2018) 1378 ; arXiv:1807.08816 | vhe historical detection vhebib overviewbib milestonebib | ||
| Kaj98 | Takaaki Kajita | Atmospheric neutrino results from Super-Kamiokande and Kamiokande - Evidence for muon-neutrino oscillations | Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.) 77 (1999) 123 | historical atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib oscbib plotbib | ||
| Kod01 | K. Kodama et al., DONUT collaboration | Observation of tau neutrino interactions | Phys. Lett. B 504 (2001) 218; arXiv:hep-ex/0012035 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib nutaubib | ||
| Lee57 | T.D. Lee and C.N. Yang | Parity non-conservation and a two-component theory of the neutrino | Phys. Rev. 105 (1957) 1671 | historical properties milestonebib overviewbib discovbib propbib | ||
| Maj37 | Ettore Majorana | Teoria simmetrica dell’elettrone e del positrone | Nuovo Cimento 14 (1937) 171 | historical properties majorana milestonebib overviewbib propbib | ||
| Mak62 | Z. Maki, M. Nakagawa and S. Sakata | Remarks on the Unified Model of Elementary Particles | Progress of Theoretical Physics 28 (1962) 870 | historical oscillation theory milestonebib overviewbib oscbib | ||
| Mar60 | M.A. Markov | On high energy neutrino physics | Proc. 10th Int. Conf. on High-Energy Physics, Rochester, 1960, p. 579 | historical vhe milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib vhebib | ||
| Mik85 | S.P. Mikheyev and A. Yu. Smirnov | Resonance enhancement of oscillations in matter and solar neutrino spectroscopy | Nuovo Cimento C9 (1986) 17; Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 42 (1985) 913 (in russian) | oscillation msw milestonebib overviewbib oscbib | ||
| Min77 | P. Minkowski | Muon decay into electron and gamma at a rate of one out of 1 billion muon decays | Phys. Lett. B67 (1977) 421 | historical mass theory milestonebib overviewbib propbib theorybib | ||
| Pau30 | W. Pauli | Dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen | Pauli to L. Meitner (in German) , English translation by K. Rieselmann, French translation | historical milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib energybib | ||
| Pau33 | W. Pauli | Discussion du rapport de M. Heisenberg « Structure et propriétés des noyaux atomiques » | 7ème Conseil Physique Solvay, Bruxelles, 1933, Gautier-Villars (1934) p. 324 | historical milestonebib overviewbib prehistbib energybib | ||
| Per75 | M.L. Perl et al. | Evidence for anomalous lepton production in e+e- interactions | Phys. Rev. Lett. 35 (1975) 1489 | historical numbernu milestonebib overviewbib nutaubib | ||
| Pon46 | B. Pontecorvo | Inverse beta process | Report PD-205 of the National Research Council of Canada, Division of Atomic Energy, Chalk River, Ontario, Nov. 13, 1946 (available in *Winter, K. (ed.): Neutrino physics*, p.25, in *Pontecorvo, B.: Selected scientific works*, p. 21, in *Bahcall, J.N. (ed.) et al.: Solar neutrinos* 97-106) - Reprint in “Neutrino Physics”, ed. by K. Winter, Cambridge University Press, 1991 | historical detection milestonebib overviewbib discovbib nuantinubib | ||
| Pon57 | B. Pontecorvo | Inverse beta processes and nonconservation of lepton charge | Soviet Physics JETP 7 (1958) 172 ; ZETF 34 (1957) 247 | historical properties milestonebib overviewbib oscbib | ||
| Pon59b | B. Pontecorvo | Electron and muon neutrinos | Soviet Physics JETP 10 (1960) 1236 ; J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. 37 (1959) 1751 - Submitted July 9, 1959 - Reprint in “Neutrino Physics”, ed. by K. Winter, Cambridge University Press, 1991 | historical numbernu numubib overviewbib plotbib | ||
| Pon67 | B. Pontecorvo | Neutrino experiments and the question of leptonic-charge conservation | Soviet Physics JETP 26 (1968) 984 ; ZETF 53 (1967) 1717 | historical oscillation theory milestonebib overviewbib oscbib theorybib | ||
| Rac37 | G. Racah | Sulla simmetria tra particelle e antiparticelle | Nuovo Cimento 14 (1937) 322 | historical properties majorana overviewbib propbib | ||
| Rei53 | F. Reines and C.L. Cowan | Detection of the free neutrino | Phys. Rev. 92 (1953) 830 | historical detection milestonebib overviewbib discovbib reactorbib plotbib | ||
| Rei56 | Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan jr. | The neutrino | Nature 178 (1956) 446 | historical detection milestonebib overviewbib discovbib reactorbib plotbib | ||
| Rei65b | F. Reines, M.F. Crouch, T.L. Jenkins, W.R. Kropp, H.S. Gurr, G.R. Schmid, J.P.F. Sellschop, B. Meyer | Evidence for high energy cosmic ray neutrino interactions | Phys. Rev. Lett. 15 (1965) 429 | historical atmospheric milestonebib overviewbib atmosbib vhebib | ||
| Rob76 | A. Roberts, ed. | DUMAND-76 | Proc. 1976 DUMAND Summer Workshop, September 1976, Hawaii | vhe detection proceedings vhebib overviewbib | ||
| Sch60 | M. Schwartz | Feasibility of using high energy neutrinos to study the weak interactions | Phys. Rev. Lett. 4 (1960) 306 - Submitted Feb. 23, 1960 - Reprint in “Neutrino Physics”, ed. by K. Winter, Cambridge University Press, 1991 | historical numbernu numubib overviewbib plotbib | ||
| Wol78 | L. Wolfenstein | Neutrino oscillations in matter | Phys. Rev. D17 (1978) 2369 | historical oscillation msw milestonebib overviewbib oscbib | ||
| Wu57 | C.S. Wu, E. Ambler, R.W. Hayward, D.D. Hoppes, R.P. Hudson | Experimental test of parity conservation in beta decay | Phys. Rev. 105 (1957) 1413 | historical properties betadecay milestonebib overviewbib discovbib propbib | ||
| Yan79 | T. Yanagida | Horizontal symmetry and masses of neutrinos | Prog. of Theor. Phys. 64 (1980) 1103 & "Horizontal gauge symmetry and masses of neutrinos" in Workshop on Unified Theory and Baryon Number in the Universe, February 1979, O. Sawada and A. Sugamoto editors, KEK, Tsukuba (1979) | historical mass theory milestonebib overviewbib propbib |