Frederick Reines
Frederick Reines | |
---|---|
Born | Paterson, New Jersey, U.S. | March 16, 1918
Died | August 26, 1998 Orange, California, U.S. | (aged 80)
Citizenship | American |
Alma mater | New York University Stevens Institute of Technology |
Known for | Neutrinos |
Spouse | Sylvia Samuels (m. 1940; 2 children) |
Awards |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions |
|
Thesis | Nuclear fission and the liquid drop model of the nucleus (1944) |
Doctoral advisor | Richard D. Present |
Doctoral students | Michael K. Moe (1965) |
Frederick Reines (
A graduate of
In the early 1950s, working in Hanford and Savannah River Sites, Reines and Cowan developed the equipment and procedures with which they first detected the supposedly undetectable neutrinos in June 1956. Reines dedicated the major part of his career to the study of the neutrino's properties and interactions, which work would influence study of the neutrino for many researchers to come. This included the detection of neutrinos created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays, and the 1987 detection of neutrinos emitted from Supernova SN1987A, which inaugurated the field of neutrino astronomy.
Early life
Frederick Reines was born in
The family moved to
Reines sang in a chorus, and as a soloist. For a time he considered the possibility of a singing career, and was instructed by a vocal coach from the Metropolitan Opera who provided lessons for free because the family did not have the money for them.[4] The family later moved to North Bergen, New Jersey, residing on Kennedy Boulevard and 57th Street. Because North Bergen did not have a high school,[5] he attended Union Hill High School in Union Hill, New Jersey (today Union City, New Jersey),[4][5] from which he graduated in 1935.[5]
From an early age, Reines exhibited an interest in science, and liked creating and building things. He later recalled that:
The first stirrings of interest in science that I remember occurred during a moment of boredom at religious school, when, looking out of the window at twilight through a hand curled to
simulate a telescope, I noticed something peculiar about the light; it was the phenomenon of diffraction. That began for me a fascination with light.[4]
Ironically, Reines excelled in literary and history courses, but received average or low marks in science and math in his freshman year of high school, though he improved in those areas by his junior and senior years through the encouragement of a teacher who gave him a key to the school laboratory. This cultivated a love of science by his senior year. In response to a question seniors were asked about what they wanted to do for a yearbook quote, he responded: "To be a physicist extraordinaire."[4]
Reines was accepted into the
Los Alamos Laboratory
In 1944
Reines participated in a number of
In spite or perhaps because of his role in these nuclear tests, Reines was concerned about the dangers of radioactive pollution from atmospheric nuclear tests, and became an advocate of
Discovery of the neutrino and the inner workings of stars
The neutrino is a subatomic particle first proposed by Wolfgang Pauli on December 4, 1930. The particle was required to resolve the problem of missing energy in observations of beta decay, when a neutron decays into a proton and an electron. The new hypothetical particle was required to preserve the fundamental law of conservation of energy. Enrico Fermi renamed it the neutrino, Italian for "little neutral one",[9] and in 1934, proposed his theory of beta decay by which the electrons emitted from the nucleus were created by the decay of a neutron into a proton, an electron, and a neutrino:[10][11]
n0
→
p+
+
e−
+
ν
e
The neutrino accounted for the missing energy, but Fermi's theory described a particle with little mass and no electric charge that appeared to be impossible to observe directly. In a 1934 paper, Rudolf Peierls and Hans Bethe calculated that neutrinos could easily pass through the Earth, and concluded "there is no practically possible way of observing the neutrino."[12]
In 1951, Reines and his colleague Clyde Cowan decided to see if they could detect neutrinos and so prove their existence. At the conclusion of the Greenhouse test series, Reines had received permission from the head of T Division, J. Carson Mark, for a leave in residence to study fundamental physics. "So why did we want to detect the free neutrino?" he later explained, "Because everybody said, you couldn't do it."[13]
According to Fermi's theory, there was also a corresponding reverse reaction, in which a neutrino combines with a proton to create a neutron and a positron:[13]
ν
e +
p+
→
n0
+
e+
The positron would soon be annihilated by an electron and produce two 0.51 MeV
In 1953, they made their first attempts using one of the large reactors at the
From then on Reines dedicated the major part of his career to the study of the neutrino's properties and interactions, which work would influence study of the neutrino for future researchers to come.[17] Cowan left Los Alamos in 1957 to teach at George Washington University, ending their collaboration.[3] On the basis of his work in first detecting the neutrino, Reines became the head of the physics department of Case Western Reserve University from 1959 to 1966. At Case, he led a group that was the first to detect neutrinos created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays.[14] Reines had a booming voice, and had been a singer since childhood. During this time, besides performing his duties as a research supervisor and chairman of the physics department, Reines sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus under the direction of Robert Shaw in performances with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.[18]
In the early 1960s, Reines built a detector in the
In 1966, Reines took most of his neutrino research team with him when he left for the new University of California, Irvine (UCI), becoming its first dean of physical sciences. At UCI, Reines extended the research interests of some of his graduate students into the development of medical radiation detectors, such as for measuring total radiation delivered to the whole human body in radiation therapy.[18]
Reines had prepared for the possibility of measuring the distant events of a supernova explosion. Supernova explosions are rare, but Reines thought he might be lucky enough to see one in his lifetime, and be able to catch the neutrinos streaming from it in his specially-designed detectors. During his wait for a supernova to explode, he put signs on some of his large neutrino detectors, calling them "Supernova Early Warning Systems".[18] In 1987, neutrinos emitted from Supernova SN1987A were detected by the Irvine–Michigan–Brookhaven (IMB) Collaboration, which used an 8,000 ton Cherenkov detector located in a salt mine near Cleveland.[2] Normally, the detectors recorded only a few background events each day. The supernova registered 19 events in just ten seconds.[13] This discovery is regarded as inaugurating the field of neutrino astronomy.[2]
In 1995, Reines was honored, along with
Death
Reines died after a long illness at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California,[1] on August 26, 1998.[3] He was survived by his wife and children.[1] His papers are compiled in the UCI Libraries.[22] Frederick Reines Hall, which houses the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of California, Irvine, was named in his honor.[23]
Publications
- Reines, F. & C. L. Cowan Jr. "On the Detection of the Free Neutrino", Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (through predecessor agency Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (August 6, 1953).
- Reines, F., Cowan, C. L. Jr., Carter, R. E., Wagner, J. J. & M. E. Wyman. "The Free Antineutrino Absorption Cross Section. Part I. Measurement of the Free Antineutrino Absorption Cross Section. Part II. Expected Cross Section from Measurements of Fission Fragment Electron Spectrum", Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (through predecessor agency Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (June 1958).
- Reines, F., Gurr, H. S., Jenkins, T. L. & J. H. Munsee. "Neutrino Experiments at Reactors", University of California-Irvine, Case Western Reserve University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (September 9, 1968).
- Roberts, A., Blood, H., Learned, J. & F. Reines. "Status and Aims of the DUMAND Neutrino Project: the Ocean as a Neutrino Detector", Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Energy Research and Development Administration), (July 1976).
- Reines, F. (1991). Neutrinos and Other Matters: Selected Works of Frederick Reines. Teaneck, N.J.: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-02-0392-4.
Notes
- ^ a b c Wilford, John Noble (August 28, 1998). "Frederick Reines Dies at 80; Nobelist Discovered Neutrino". The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
- ^ a b c Schultz, Jonas; Sobel, Hank. "Frederick Reines and the Neutrino". University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Kropp, William; Schultz, Jonas; Sobel, Henry (2009). Frederick Reines 1918-1998 A Biographical Memoir (PDF). Washington D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1995". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
- ^ The Union City Reporter. p. 12.
- ^ "Nuclear fission and the liquid drop model of the nucleus". New York University. Retrieved February 18, 2015.[permanent dead link]
- PMID 18880816.
- ^ Truslow & Smith 1961, pp. 56–59.
- ^ Close 2012, pp. 15–18.
- . Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ^ Close 2012, pp. 22–25.
- S2CID 4001646.
- ^ a b c d e Reines, Frederick (December 8, 1995). "The Neutrino: From Poltergeist to Particle" (PDF). Nobel Foundation. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
Nobel Prize lecture
- ^ ISSN 0031-9228. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 17, 2008.
- ^ .
- ^ Close 2012, pp. 37–41.
- ^ a b Close 2012, p. 42.
- ^ a b c "In Memoriam, 1998. Frederick Reines, Physics; Radiological Sciences: Irvine". University of California. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-981-12-3105-6.
- .
- ^ "The Passing of Frederick Reines, Physics Nobel Laureate in 1995". University of California, Irvine. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013.
- ^ "Guide to the Frederick Reines Papers". Retrieved February 18, 2015 – via California Digital Library.
- ^ Benjamin, Marisa. "Frederick Reines Hall at UC Irvine". About.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
See also
References
- OCLC 840096946.
- Truslow, Edith C.; Smith, Ralph Carlisle (1961). Manhattan District history, Project Y, the Los Alamos story, Volume II: August 1945 to December 1946. Los Angeles: Tomash Publishers. ISBN 978-0-938228-08-0. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
Originally published as Los Alamos Report LAMS-2532
External links
- Guide to the Frederick Reines Papers. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
- Frederick Reines on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1995 The Neutrino: From Poltergeist to Particle