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Electroweak symmetry breaking is the Higgs-field breaking $SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y\to U(1{)}_Q$. It gives masses to the $W$ and $Z$ bosons while leaving the photon massless.

With the hypercharge convention $Q=T_3+Y$, the lower component of the Higgs doublet has $T_3=-1/2$ and $Y=1/2$. Thus $Q⟨\varphi ⟩=0$: the vacuum expectation value is electrically neutral. This is why one combination of the neutral gauge fields remains the massless photon, as the electroweak doublet gauge-boson mass matrix shows.

Continue the chosen Higgs field potential example with $g=3/5$ and $g^{\prime }=4/5$. The tree-level electroweak gauge-boson masses are $m_W=72\mathrm{GeV}$, $m_Z=120\mathrm{GeV}$ and $m_A=0$. In the $(W^3,B)$ basis,Its orthonormal eigenvectors $(4/5,3/5{)}^T$ and $(3/5,-4/5{)}^T$ have eigenvalues zero and $14400{\mathrm{GeV}}^2$. Thus $\cos {\theta }_W=3/5=m_W/m_Z$. This is an exact model check, not a fit to measured electroweak interaction parameters.

A diagonal charged-fermion Yukawa coupling expands asThe Yukawa coupling remains a free parameter: the mechanism relates a fermion mass to its scalar interaction but does not predict the numerical mass. This example concerns charged fermions; the minimal Standard Model has no right-handed neutrino and does not account for neutrino oscillations without an extension.

How can a detector establish that an unseen particle changes identity? The Super-Kamiokande atmospheric-neutrino experiment compares different travel paths; the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory compares different interaction channels. Both infer neutrino flavor from reaction products and calibrated responses. Their complementarity connects particle detection to neutrino oscillation, neutrino mass and neutrino astronomy.

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald shared the 2015 physics Nobel Prize. These were collaboration achievements: Yoichiro Suzuki's Super-Kamiokande work included the solar neutrino analysis, and George Ewan helped establish and lead the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.^[ref][ref]

The older Kamiokande account explains water Cherenkov neutrino reconstruction; Raymond Davis Jr.'s Homestake experiment explains why a deficit in an electron neutrino channel alone leaves a source-versus-propagation ambiguity. Complementary channels can break that ambiguity.

Kamiokande, associated with Masatoshi Koshiba, was an underground water Cherenkov detector viewed by photomultipliers. Improved water purity and reduced background enabled solar neutrino observations. A concentration of reconstructed recoil directions toward the Sun distinguished a source signal above an approximately direction-independent background.^[ref]

For solar neutrinos, Electron elastic scattering supplies a directional recoil, with different cross sections for active neutrino flavors. Neither the Homestake experiment deficit nor the SN 1987A neutrino burst alone established neutrino oscillation; later evidence compared complementary channels and propagation effects.^[ref]

In 1962, Leon Max Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger and collaborators distinguished muon neutrinos from electron neutrinos using a neutrino beam.^[ref]

The Alternating Gradient Synchrotron delivered $15\mathrm{GeV}$ protons onto beryllium. Particle decay of pions and kaons supplied neutrinos; a $13.5\mathrm{m}$ iron shield preceded a ten-ton aluminium spark chamber.^[ref]

Production and detection are separate. In modern neutrino flavour notation,Shielding suppresses the daughter muon; a newly produced muon inside the spark chamber's aluminium marks an interaction.^[ref]

Beam-timed coincidence circuits and veto counters rejected entering tracks. Machine-off runs measured cosmic ray contamination; shield-thickness changes tested neutrons. Placing lead near the target shortened the meson decay path and reduced events. Cosmotron Electron calibration established particle shower recognition.^[ref]

The paper compared $34$ single-muon candidates, including $5$ estimated cosmic ray events, with six shower candidates unlike calibrated Electron showers. Kaon decays could supply genuine electron neutrinos. The deficit favored distinct neutrino flavours under lepton universality.^[ref]

The inference concerns production and detection channels. It does not measure neutrino mass or establish permanently fixed neutrino flavour. Later neutrino oscillation experiments address changes during propagation.^[ref]

If all neutrinos are exactly massless, arbitrary unitary rotations among them preserve both their kinetic terms and their zero mass matrix. After diagonalizing the charged-lepton Yukawa matrix, choose the neutrino basis to coincide with that rotation. The resulting weak charged current has no physical lepton mixing matrix. With nondegenerate neutrino masses this extra basis freedom is lost, permitting observable neutrino oscillations and lepton mixing.

A neutrino label defined by the associated charged lepton in weak charged current production or detection. A produced flavour state can evolve through neutrino oscillation.

The mass of a neutrino mass eigenstate. A neutrino flavor need not have one definite mass; neutrino oscillation probes differences of squared masses.

Neutrino oscillation is coherent conversion between neutrino flavors: different mass eigenstates acquire different propagation phases. It measures squared-mass differences and mixing, rather than an absolute neutrino mass. The Super-Kamiokande atmospheric-neutrino experiment tests path-dependent disappearance; the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory compares reactions with complementary neutrino flavor sensitivity. Solar neutrino propagation also requires matter effects; the two-flavour vacuum survival model is only an illustration.

Awarded in equal shares to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald for discovering neutrino oscillations, showing that neutrinos have mass.^[ref]

The first argument is the energy budget. The gravitational energy reservoir is of order $G{M}^2/R$, so the Kelvin-Helmholtz cooling time is $t_{\mathrm{KH}}\sim G{M}^2/(RL)$. For the Sun, $M\simeq 2\times 10^{30}\mathrm{kg}$, $R\simeq 7\times 10^8\mathrm{m}$ and $L\simeq 3.8\times 10^{26}\mathrm{W}$ give $t_{\mathrm{KH}}\sim 3\times 10^7$ years. This is much shorter than the approximately $4.6\times 10^9$-year solar-system age. Chemical binding energies are only of order electronvolts per atom and provide an even smaller reservoir. Thus neither ordinary chemical energy nor continuing gravitational contraction can supply the long-term solar luminosity.

Stellar nuclear fusion provides an adequate reservoir. Conversion of four hydrogen atoms into one helium-4 atom releases about $26.7\mathrm{MeV}$, corresponding to a mass defect of about $0.007$ of the initial mass; some energy leaves as neutrinos. If a fraction $f$ of stellar mass with hydrogen fraction $X$ is available for core burning, the energy scale is $0.007fXM{c}^2$. Taking $f\sim 0.1$ and $X\sim 0.7$ supplies roughly $9\times 10^{43}\mathrm{J}$, enough for several billion years at the solar luminosity, consistent with a stellar nuclear timescale of order $10^{10}$ years. The core temperature and density inferred from stellar structure permit the proton–proton chain; hotter stellar cores favor the CNO cycle.

The most direct evidence is the detection of solar neutrinos. They are created in the weak reactions of the proton–proton chain and can escape from the core, unlike the photons whose transport through the interior is slow. Measurements accounting for neutrino oscillation recover a total neutrino flux consistent with nuclear-powered solar models. Their spectra and reaction-dependent fluxes test the core reactions rather than merely the surface effective temperature.

There is also independent evidence from stellar evolution: the main sequence is a long-lived core-hydrogen-burning phase, more massive luminous stars consume fuel more quickly, and the main-sequence turnoff of a star cluster records its age. Subsequent evolution and the production of heavier elements fit further nuclear reactions. Agreement among these observations, nuclear energy release and stellar-model lifetimes is much stronger than the energy-budget argument alone. The combination of a sufficient nuclear reservoir, measured core neutrinos and the observed evolutionary sequence identifies nuclear reactions as the main long-term power source of ordinary stars.

Both the left-handed Electron and the electron neutrino participate in weak charged currents through $W^{\pm }$, and both have weak neutral currents mediated by the Z boson. Their electromagnetic interactions differ: the Electron has electric charge $-e$ and couples to the photon, while the neutrino is electrically neutral and has no tree-level electromagnetic coupling.

In the minimal massless-neutrino Standard Model, the active neutrino has only a left-handed particle state and a right-handed antiparticle state. The Electron has both chiralities: its right-handed component has electromagnetic interactions and a weak neutral current, but no weak charged current. Its nonzero mass comes from a Yukawa coupling to the Higgs field; the minimal massless-neutrino model contains no right-handed neutrino for an analogous Dirac mass term.

Observed neutrino oscillations establish nonzero neutrino mass-squared differences. Atmospheric muon-neutrino disappearance depends on travel distance and energy, and solar electron neutrinos convert into other active flavors; reactor and accelerator oscillations provide complementary evidence. In propagation, the relative phase of two mass eigenstates is $\Delta m_{ij}^{2}L/(2E)$. If all masses were zero there would be no such relative phase. Thus at least two neutrino mass eigenstates are nonzero in the three-neutrino description with two independent measured splittings. A flavor state is a superposition of mass eigenstates, so the evidence does not assign a single definite mass to a flavor label.

In neutrino oscillation, a neutrino produced with definite flavor is a coherent superposition $|{\nu }_{\alpha }⟩={\sum }_i{U}_{\alpha i}^{\ast }|{\nu }_i⟩$ of mass eigenstates. Propagation gives the components different phases, producing a baseline- and energy-dependent probability to detect another flavor. Oscillation requires nonzero mass-squared differences and nontrivial mixing, so its observation proves that at least two neutrinos are massive and that individual flavor lepton numbers are not conserved. It measures mass differences and mixing parameters, though not the absolute neutrino-mass scale.

Use the inverse beta decay threshold, with the charged-lepton mass generalized to $m_{\ell }$. For a stationary proton and a massless incident antineutrino, the Mandelstam invariant is $s=m_p^2+2m_p{E}_{\nu }$. At threshold the final particles have no relative momentum in their centre-of-momentum frame, so $s_{\mathrm{thr}}=(m_n+m_{\ell }{)}^2$. ThereforeUsing the supplied, rounded masses givesThe second term is the recoil correction; setting the threshold equal just to the final rest-mass excess would miss it.

Reactor electron antineutrinos have energies of a few million electronvolts. They can produce a Positron through inverse beta decay above the first threshold, but cannot produce a muon. Thus reactor neutrino oscillations are measured primarily as electron-antineutrino disappearance, through the event rate and energy spectrum relative to the unoscillated prediction. An oscillated muon antineutrino cannot be identified by the proposed muon-production channel at reactor energies; disappearance alone does not distinguish all possible final flavours.

A solar neutrino is a neutrino produced by a nuclear reaction in the Sun, principally through the proton–proton chain and CNO cycle. Its weak interactions allow it to escape directly from the stellar core. Accounting for neutrino oscillation allows measurements of the different detected flavors to test the nuclear reaction power and rates independently of escaping photons.

A physicist researching atmospheric neutrinos and neutrino oscillations.^[ref]

For a deliberately simplified neutrino oscillation calculation, take two neutrino flavors related to two mass eigenstates by a real rotation matrix with angle $\theta$. A quantum superposition acquires different phases during propagation; projecting back onto the initial neutrino flavor gives the probabilityHere $L$ is path length and $E$ is neutrino energy; the numerical coefficient incorporates unit conversion.

The paper states the corresponding conversion formula.^[ref]

The path dependence has a geometrical origin. In an original spherical-Earth model, let $R$ be the radius and $h$ a fixed production height, neglecting detector depth. Let $\Theta$ be the zenith distance of the direction in the sky from which the neutrino arrives, so $c=\cos \Theta =+1$ means downward propagation. The backward ray from detector to production obeys $R^2+L^2+2RLc=(R+h{)}^2$. Its positive solution isThus $L(+1)=h$ and $L(-1)=2R+h$. The calculation explains why opposite directions test very different baselines, rather than attributing every observed direction to the same travel distance. Actual production heights and the angle between the outgoing charged lepton and incoming neutrino smear that relationship.

For an original chosen example, set $\theta =\pi /4$ and $\Delta m^2=2.5\times 10^{-3}{\mathrm{eV}}^2$. At $E=1\mathrm{GeV}$, $L=20\mathrm{km}$ gives $P_{\mu \mu }\simeq 0.9960$, while $L=500\mathrm{km}$ gives $P_{\mu \mu }\simeq 0.000279$. The first minimum is at $L/E\simeq 494.7km/GeV$. These are stipulated inputs, not a fit to the 1998 data. A broad distribution of true $L/E$, together with energy and directional uncertainty, smooths the sharp minima.

A direct amplitude check makes the mechanism explicit. DefineThen $S_{11}={\cos }^2\theta +{\sin }^2\theta e^{-2i\phi }$. Taking its squared absolute value yields the displayed survival formula because $1-\cos (2\phi )=2{\sin }^2\phi$. Unitarity gives $|S_{11}{|}^2+|S_{21}{|}^2=1$: disappearance from one channel becomes conversion to the other within this closed model.

This illustration does not describe all solar neutrino propagation. Coherent forward scattering in matter changes the effective propagation operator, and three active neutrino flavors require a larger mixing description. Even in the simplified model, neutrino oscillation measures a squared-mass difference; it does not determine the absolute neutrino mass.