2015年诺贝尔物理学奖授予日本物理学家梶田隆章和加拿大物理学家阿瑟·麦克唐纳,奖励他们发现中微子振荡现象,从而证明中微子具有非零的静止质量。这是粒子物理学唯一具有确凿实验证据的超出标准模型的新物理现象,改变了人类对物质世界基本规律的认识。文章将回顾中微子振荡现象的发现过程,介绍太阳中微子和大气中微子振荡实验的实验结果和理论解释,以及近期反应堆和加速器中微子振荡的研究成果,并展望中微子研究的前景。
The 2015 Nobel prize in physics was awarded to Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita and Canadian physicist Arthur B. Mc Donald, for the discovery of neutrino oscillations,which shows neutrinos have mass. This is the only new-physics phenomenon beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles, which alter our understanding of the physical world. In this article, history of the neutrino oscillation discovery was reviewed. We shall introduce the experimental results and theoretical explainations of the solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations,the recent progresses in reactor and accelerator neutrino experiments, and discuss the future prospect of neutrino oscillations.