https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2012-20068-9
Review
Neutrino. History of a unique particle
1 Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, 141980, Russia
2 TRIUMF 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 2A3 Canada
a
e-mail: bilenky@gmail.com
Received:
26
December
2011
Received in final form:
24
October
2012
Published online:
14
December
2012
Neutrinos are the only fundamental fermions that have no electric charge. Because of that
neutrinos have no direct electromagnetic interaction and at relatively small energies they
can take part only in weak processes with virtual W± and
Z0 bosons (like β-decay of nuclei, inverse
β process , etc.). Neutrino masses are many orders of magnitude
smaller than masses of charged leptons and quarks. These two circumstances make neutrinos
unique, special particles. The history of the neutrino is very interesting, exciting and
instructive. We try here to follow the main stages of the neutrino history starting from
the Pauli proposal and finishing with the discovery and study of neutrino
oscillations.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag 2012