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Particle physics

Wobbly oscillations

Nature volume 447, pages 43–46 (2007)Cite this article

Neutrinos seem to oscillate: they change back and forth between one type and another and, by extension, have a tiny mass. But one experiment that predicted a particularly large mass looks to have been mistaken.

When is a discovery not a discovery? When it can't be reproduced, of course. That scientific ground-rule has plagued the members of the LSND (Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector) collaboration since they first saw evidence1 for so-called neutrino oscillations. Had the LSND results been confirmed, they would have rewritten much of what we think we know about the ever-elusive neutrinos (Box 1). But results just announced2 from the MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab, near Chicago, could prove those earlier results' nemesis.

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Figure 1: Cleaning up the oscillation signal.
Figure 2: Light signal.

MINIBOONE COLLABORATION

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  1. David Wark is in the Department of Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BW, and at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK. d.l.wark@rl.ac.uk,

    David Wark

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  1. David Wark
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Wark, D. Wobbly oscillations. Nature 447, 43–46 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/447043a

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