So when did people start to suspect that the neutrino had mass?

In summary, the conversation discusses the discovery and theories surrounding neutrino mass. It mentions that in the past, neutrinos were believed to be massless, but in 1982, it was suggested that they may have mass. Textbooks typically did not mention massive neutrinos until the late 1990s when it was finally observed. The idea of a massive neutrino dates back to a 1930 letter by Pauli. The conversation also touches on the possibility that not all neutrinos have mass, and the discovery of neutrino oscillations.
  • #1
arivero
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Looking at Nucl.Phys. B194 (1982) 422 I read

"In 1972 there were two neutrinos and they were
both massless. Today we have three and perhaps all of them have
mass.
"

Hey, 1981 and neutrinos have mass? I was not even in the university. And in all the textbooks the neutrino was massless. So how is that they (Bardeen et al) at the Fermilab had already decided that at least some of them were massive?
 
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  • #2
http://www.pd.infn.it/~laveder/unbo..._oscillations-nobel-simposium-19-aug-2004.pdf

The theories were first starting be built from the 50-60's, with the 70-80's being the best [IMO]...

I think most of textbooks would avoid talking about massive neutrinos except for if they were specialized in those kind of theories (as theories). It wasn't until 1998 when this was finally observed in SuperKamiokande.
http://hitoshi.berkeley.edu/neutrino/PhysicsWorld.pdf

So I guess that's the reason your quote says "perhaps all of them have mass"
 
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  • #3
The idea of a massive neutrino goes back to the 1930 Pauli letter postulating it: "Groessenordnung wie die
Elektronenmasse sein und jedenfalls nicht grosser als 0,01 Protonenmasse" - of order the electron mass and in any event less than 1% of the proton mass.
 
  • #4
ChrisVer said:
So I guess that's the reason your quote says "perhaps all of them have mass"


Well, I read the "perhaps" as meaning that oscillations do not require mass for all of them.

The slides are very interesting, thanks for pointing them out!
 

Related to So when did people start to suspect that the neutrino had mass?

1. How was the existence of neutrino first discovered?

The existence of neutrinos was first proposed by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to explain the missing energy and momentum in beta decay. The first experimental evidence for neutrinos was discovered in 1956 by Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines.

2. When did scientists first suspect that neutrinos may have mass?

In the 1960s, scientists began to suspect that neutrinos may have mass after observing discrepancies in energy and momentum conservation in nuclear reactions involving neutrinos.

3. What was the first major experiment that provided evidence for neutrino mass?

The Homestake experiment, conducted in the 1960s, provided the first evidence that neutrinos have mass. The experiment observed a lower number of neutrinos coming from the sun than predicted, leading to the conclusion that neutrinos must be changing into a different type as they travel, which is only possible if they have mass.

4. How was the existence of different types of neutrinos first discovered?

In the 1960s, experiments conducted by Ray Davis and John Bahcall showed that there are three different types of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos, and tau neutrinos. This discovery was made by observing the interactions of neutrinos with matter and detecting the different types of particles produced.

5. When was the first direct evidence for neutrino mass discovered?

In 1998, the Super-Kamiokande experiment in Japan provided the first direct evidence for neutrino mass by observing oscillations between different types of neutrinos. This experiment showed that neutrinos have mass and can change from one type to another, a phenomenon that can only occur if they have mass.

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