Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment
The Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment was conducted by physicists Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines in 1956. The experiment confirmed the existence of neutrinos. Neutrinos, subatomic particles with no electric charge and very small mass, had been conjectured to be an essential particle in beta decay processes in the 1930s. With neither mass nor charge, such particles appeared to be impossible to detect. The experiment exploited a huge flux of electron antineutrinos emanating from a nearby nuclear reactor and a detector consisting of large tanks of water. Neutrino interactions with the protons of the water were observed, verifying the existence and basic properties of this particle for the first time.
Frederick Reines (far right) with Clyde Cowan (far left) and other members of Project Poltergeist
Group portrait of the “Project Poltergeist” team searching for the neutrino; Frederick Reines holds the poster, Clyde Cowan is at far right; Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, c. 1953
Frederick Reines, left, and Clyde Cowan, at the controls of the Savannah River experiment, 1956
Clyde Lorrain Cowan Jr was an American physicist and the co-discoverer of the neutrino along with Frederick Reines. The discovery was made in 1956 in the neutrino experiment. Reines received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 in both their names.
Frederick Reines (left) with Cowan
Frederick Reines, left, and Clyde Cowan, at the controls of the Savannah River neutrino experiment (c. 1956)
Frederick Reines (far right) with Clyde Cowan (far left) and other members of Project Poltergeist, 1953
