October 6, 2015

COLLEGE PARK, MD – Two American Physical Society past prize winners received the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that neutrinos can change from one type to another, confirming that the particles have mass.

"APS congratulates Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald on the Nobel Committee's recognition of their important work on the behavior of neutrinos, and in particular the ability of the particles to change form, which indicates that neutrinos have mass,” said APS President Samuel Aronson. “The discovery has major bearing on the structure of the universe as well as the physics of the nucleus. APS is proud to have recognized both recipients in the past. Kajita received the APS W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics in 2002, while McDonald is both an APS Fellow and winner of the 2003 Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics."

The Nobel Committee noted three APS journal articles listed below as being critical to the prize citation. The APS has made the papers freely available to all readers.

Evidence for Oscillation of Atmospheric Neutrinos
Y. Fukuda et al. (Super-Kamiokande Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1562 – Published 24 August 1998
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1562

Measurement of the Rate of νe + d → p + p +e Interactions Produced by 8B Solar Neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Q.R. Ahmad et al. (SNO collaboration)
Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 071301 – Published 13 August 2001
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.071301

Direct Evidence for Neutrino Flavor Transformation from Neutral-Current Interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Q. R. Ahmad et al.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 011301 – Published 13 June 2002
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.011301

APS Press Releases

APS issues press releases on research news, Society activities, and other physics tips.

View Archive

APS Media Contacts

General Media Inquiries
media@aps.org

Using the APS Logo

Logo Usage Guidelines


About APS

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world.