By: evan West
Introduction and Early Life
Frederick Reines was a highly awarded physicist who worked at the Manhattan Project starting in 1944 and discovered the fundamental particle known as a neutrinos. He was born on March 16, 1918 to Gussie Cohen and Israel Reines. Reines describes his early education as strongly influenced by the educational ambitions of his elder siblings: he was the youngest of four and had two brothers and a sister. His sister went on to become a doctor and his brothers both became lawyers. In High School Reines was drawn to literary pursuits and struggled with sciences. However, by this junior year this changed after a science teacher took a strong interest in the young man. To describe his principle ambition in the yearbook, Reines simply stated: “To be a physicist extraordinaire.”
Higher Education and the Manhattan Project
Frederick Reines earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a masters of science degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology graduating in 1941. During this time Reines sang in the chorus where he performed solos in many major pieces and was provided with lessons from a vocal coach from the Metropolitan Opera free of charge. For a time, Reines seriously considered a professional singing career but decided against it and went to New York University for graduate school. He earned a PHD there in 1944. Reines was recruited into the Manhattan Project, while finishing his thesis, by Richard Feynman to work at the Los Alamos Laboratory. During his time working in Los Alamos, Reines “sang solos with the town chorus and performed with the dramatic society.” Reines worked under Feynman in the Theoretical Division and about a year later became a leader of a group working on diffusion problems. Diffusion is an important area of study for doing critical mass calculations correctly.
Reines participated in many Nuclear Arms tests, writing numerous reports on these tests. However, eventually Reines became concerned about the negative environmental effects of Nuclear testing and became an advocate for moving Nuclear tests underground.
Discovery of the Neutrino
After leaving the Manhattan Project in 1951, Reines started studying the properties and interactions of neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles that are similar to electrons with a key difference: neutrinos carry no electric charge. There are three kinds of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos, and tau neutrinos. Each type is related to the a charged particle it’s named for.
“Neutrinos are constantly being produced from nuclear power stations, particle accelerators, nuclear bombs, general atmospheric phenomena, and during the births, collisions, and deaths of stars, particularly the explosions of supernovae.”
In June 1956 Reines and Cowan succeeded in doing what many at the time considered impossible: detecting the neutrino. They detected the electron neutrino using a nuclear reactor, which as noted above would generate neutrinos. “The neutrinos would then interact with protons in a tank of water, creating neutrons and positrons. Each positron would create a pair of gamma rays when it annihilated with an electron. The gamma rays were detected by placing a scintillator material in a tank of water.” The test was further refined and the results were published in 1956. In recognition of the work Reines did to discover the neutrino he was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics.
He died on August 26th, 1998 and is survived by his wife Sylvia and their children.
Sources
1“Frederick Reines.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Reines.
2“Frederick Reines – Biographical.” Nobelprize.org, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1995/reines-bio.html.
3“All About Neutrinos.” Neutrino Detector, icecube.wisc.edu/info/neutrinos.
4“Neutrinos: 1956.” IceCube Neutrino Observatory, icecube.wisc.edu/info/neutrinos/1956.