Chromium Surrogate Sun Confirms that Solar Neutrinos Really Are Missing

APR 01, 1995

As we hear early reports of neutrino oscillation in an accelerator beam, an experiment with a surrogate Sun lends ci"edence and clarity to the solar neutrino puzzle, the oldest of the anomalies that point to exotic neutrino metamorphosis.

DOI: 10.1063/1.2807971

Bertram M. Schwarzschild

There may still be some who doubt that the missing‐solar‐neutrino problem is real. But an impressive experiment with a radioactive solar surrogate recently completed at the Gallex solar neutrino detector in Italy makes it difficult to sustain such skepsis.’ The new experiment supports the reports over the last several years that Gallex and Russia’s SAGE, the other large gallium detector, see only about 60% of the solar neutrino signal confidently predicted by astro‐physical models. (See PHYSICS TODAY, August 1992, page 17.) Thus it does much to bring the observational features of the solar neutrino puzzle into clearer focus.