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The experiment infers neutrino helicity from nuclear nuclear resonance fluorescence and photon helicity. A spin-zero nucleus undergoes electron capture to a spin-one daughter, which emits a nuclear gamma ray to a spin-zero ground state. Selecting emission along the daughter recoil relates the normalized daughter, photon and neutrino helicities. Reversing magnetized iron measures the circular polarization of the selected radiation.^[ref]

The nuclear gamma ray can be absorbed by ground-state samarium-152, excite the same level and be re-emitted: nuclear nuclear resonance fluorescence. Its energy in the absorber rest frame must overlap the nuclear absorption line within the relevant natural and thermal broadening. Atomic radiation from refilling the K shell does not have the required transition energy.

Let the excitation energy be $E_0$ and the nuclear mass be $M$. A free stationary emitter loses recoil energy while a free stationary absorber requires recoil energy:For $E_0\simeq 0.96\mathrm{MeV}$ the gap is about $6.5\mathrm{eV}$. A photon emitted along the daughter recoil receives a positive Doppler shift of approximately $E_0{p}_{\nu }/(Mc)$, whereas one emitted opposite the recoil is redshifted. Emission before the daughter slows down therefore selects photons roughly opposite to the neutrino. Comparable neutrino and photon energies nearly compensate the recoil mismatch; finite line widths and thermal motion permit overlap. Exact compensation need not hold for every atom, and this is not an assumption of recoil-free emission.

Magnetized iron supplies polarized electrons. Their Compton scattering cross section depends on the relative electron spin and photon helicity, so the iron attenuates the two circular polarizations differently. Reverse the magnetization and measure the resonance-selected count asymmetry $A=(N_{+}-N_{-})/(N_{+}+N_{-})$. With a calibrated analysing power $a$ and background correction, $A=a{P}_{\gamma }$ determines the sign and magnitude of the circular polarization. A scintillation counter such as NaI(Tl), coupled to a photomultiplier, determines the gamma ray energy from calibrated pulse height; a semiconductor detector could perform the same spectroscopic function.

The functional arrangement below separates the polarization analysis from the resonance selection. The shield prevents the direct source beam from overwhelming the detector; the off-axis detector accepts gamma rays re-emitted by the samarium scatterer.

The europium source emits into magnetized iron, whose magnetization is alternated. A samarium scatterer selects nuclear nuclear resonance fluorescence, favouring photons emitted along the daughter recoil. A shielded NaI(Tl) scintillation counter records the scattered nuclear line. Compare the background-subtracted line rates for the two iron magnetizations, and use the calibrated sign of the analysing power to identify the photon helicity.

The measured circular polarization was negative, compatible after angular acceptance corrections with negative neutrino helicity. By the angular momentum conservation argument, the selected photon helicity and neutrino helicity have the same sign. Thus the experiment concludesfor the emitted relativistic electron neutrino. Finite acceptance dilutes the measured polarization; it does not justify equating the raw count asymmetry to $-1$.^[ref]