SYMMETRY 杂志上的科普文章，写得都挺有意思的。
这一期是关于 超新星1987A。当年，地球上的几个探测器，抓拍到了来自这个超新星的几十个中微子。
日本科学家通过他们抓到的这十二个中微子，获得了 2002年的诺贝尔物理学奖：“12 of the 10^58 neutrinos emitted by supernova 1987A when it exploded 170,000 light years from the earth – the first clear observation of neutrinos produced outside our galaxy.” 【2】
拿到诺贝尔奖的那十二个中微子，来自超新星 1987A【2】。
- The Supernova 1987A Photo: The Anglo-Australian Observatory
- The neutrinos arrived at 07:35 on 23 February 1987. There is a clear increase in the signal for neutrinos coming from the sun.
===相关链接：
1. The supernova that keeps on giving：https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-supernova-that-keeps-on-giving-sn1987a
2. 2002年的诺贝尔物理奖：https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2002/9650-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-2002-2002-10/
===扩展问答：
Q: 为啥日本人捕获一打中微子就获得了诺贝尔奖，而大亚湾中微子实验室捕获大量的中微子却没有？不是数量原因，是成果时间晚了？还是研究的方向不同？
A: 这是个好问题。
打个比方，你在大亚湾看到几个深圳人，很正常。
看到一个老外，有点稀奇。
看到一个外星人，那就是爆炸新闻了。
（上次，Michael自己一个人在连城逛街，回来跟我说，感觉自己是只绿猴子-Green Monkey。街上的人，都盯着他看。）
大亚湾的中微子，是“人造”中微子。在中微子家族中，常称为“反应堆中微子“，是核反应堆的产物。这是核物理时代的诺贝尔奖。
中微子家族中，还有我们常说的”太阳中微子“，来自太阳。这是中微子天文学时代的诺贝尔奖。
而1987年，日本科学家很幸运的在他们记录的数据中，看到来自天外的、太阳系外的中微子- 宇宙中微子。这是中微子家族中真正的”外星人“。
大亚湾中微子实验与其不同之处：
- 大亚湾中微子实验，观测的是“人造”中微子。中微子是由大亚湾核电站的核反应堆上产生的。
===来自超新星的中微子
- 这些中微子比超新星爆炸产生的光，更快到达地球。引用诺贝尔网页上的获奖原因：“for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos”【2】-- 得奖是为了其在天体物理学上的开创性的项献，特别是在宇宙中微子的探测上。
- 他们看到的这十二个中微子，是来自于这个 1987A的超新星爆炸
- 通过他们测量到的数据证明了： 超新星1987A爆炸后形成了一个中子星。 （在此之前，只有理论。）
- 开创了一个我们研究宇宙的一个新窗口
=== 中微子天文学
“Two New Windows on the Universe
The Earth lies in the path of a continuous flux of cosmic particles and other types of radiation. This year’s Nobel Laureates in Physics have used these very smallest components of the universe to increase our understanding of the very largest: the Sun, stars, galaxies and supernovae. The new knowledge has changed the way we look upon the universe.
The mysterious particle called a neutrino was predicted as early as 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli (Nobel Prize in 1945), but it would take 25 years to prove its existence (by Frederick Reines, Nobel Prize in 1995). This is because neutrinos, which are formed in the fusion processes in the Sun and other stars when hydrogen is converted into helium, hardly interact at all with matter and are therefore very difficult to detect. For example, thousands of billions of neutrinos pass through us every second without our noticing them. Raymond Davis Jr constructed a completely new detector, a gigantic tank filled with 600 tonnes of fluid, which was placed in a mine. Over a period of 30 years he succeeded in capturing a total of 2,000 neutrinos from the Sun and was thus able to prove that fusion provided the energy from the Sun. With another gigantic detector, called Kamiokande, a group of researchers led by Masatoshi Koshiba was able to confirm Davis’s results. They were also able, on 23 February 1987, to detect neutrinos from a distant supernova explosion. They captured twelve of the total of 10^16 neutrinos (10,000,000,000,000,000) that passed through the detector. The work of Davis and Koshiba has led to unexpected discoveries and a new, intensive field of research, neutrino-astronomy.” 【3】
===太阳中的核反应过程 - 太阳中微子的产生
太阳中的核反应链【4】
===中微子身上的诺贝尔光环：
- 1930年，Wolfgang Pauli （包利， 1945年的诺贝尔得主）预言了一个神密粒子，称之为中微子。
- 1995年的诺贝尔奖得主 Frederick Reines ： 发现中微子
* The mysterious particle called a neutrino was predicted as early as 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli ，but it would take 25 years to prove its existence (by Frederick Reines, Nobel Prize in 1995).
* 记得，2007年，我应邀到UCI去给学术讲座的时候，走过物理系的主楼，Daniel跟 我说那就是UCI的诺贝尔。
===相关链接：
1. The supernova that keeps on giving：https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-supernova-that-keeps-on-giving-sn1987a
2. 2002年的诺贝尔物理奖：https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2002/9650-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-2002-2002-10/
3.2002年的诺贝尔物理奖新闻发布：https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2002/press-release/
4. TEACH ASTRONOMY：https://www.teachastronomy.com/textbook/Our-Sun-The-Nearest-Star/Nuclear-Reactions-in-the-Sun/
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