Arthur B. McDonald

Last updated
Arthur B. McDonald

CC OOnt ONS FRS FRSC
Arthur B. McDonald 5193-2015.jpg
McDonald in Stockholm, December 2015
Born
Arthur Bruce McDonald

(1943-08-29) August 29, 1943 (age 80)
Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Alma mater
Known forSolving the solar neutrino problem
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions
Thesis Excitation energies and decay properties of T = 3/2 states in 17O, 17F and 21Na.  (1970)
Doctoral advisor Charles A. Barnes
Website www.queensu.ca/physics/arthur-b-mcdonald

Arthur Bruce McDonald, CC OOnt ONS FRS FRSC P.Eng (born August 29, 1943) is a Canadian astrophysicist. McDonald is the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration and held the Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario from 2006 to 2013. He was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita.

Contents

Early life

Art McDonald was born on August 29, 1943, [1] in Sydney, Nova Scotia. [2] He graduated with a B.Sc. in physics in 1964 and M.Sc. in physics in 1965 from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. [3] He then obtained his Ph.D. in physics in 1969 from the California Institute of Technology. [4] McDonald cited a high school math teacher and his first-year physics professor at Dalhousie as his inspirations for going into the field of physics. [5]

Academic career

Art McDonald worked as a research officer at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories northwest of Ottawa from 1969 to 1982. He became professor of physics at Princeton University from 1982 to 1989, leaving Princeton to join Queen's University where he was a professor from 1989 to 2013.

McDonald was a visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva in 2004. [6]

In 2013 McDonald became a professor emeritus of Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. He continues to be active in basic research in Neutrinos and Dark Matter at the SNOLAB underground Laboratory and was a past member of the board of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. [3] [7] [8]

His visiting positions include CERN, University of Washington (1978), Los Alamos National Laboratory (1981), University of Hawaii (2004, 2009), University of Oxford (2003, 2009), Queen's University (1988). [9]

Research

McDonald presenting himself and his research

Physicists have been investigating whether or not neutrinos have mass. Since the late 1960s, experiments have hinted that neutrinos may have mass. Theoretical models of the Sun predict that neutrinos should be made in large numbers. Neutrino detectors on the Earth have repeatedly seen fewer than the expected number of neutrinos. Because neutrinos come in three varieties (electron, muon, and tau neutrinos), and because solar neutrino detectors have been primarily sensitive only to electron neutrinos, the preferred explanation over the years is that those "missing" neutrinos had changed, or oscillated, into a variety for which the detectors had little or no sensitivity. If a neutrino oscillates, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, then it must have a mass. [7]

In 1984, McDonald's collaborator Herb Chen at the University of California at Irvine suggested the advantages of using heavy water as a detector for solar neutrinos. [10] Unlike previous detectors, using heavy water would make the detector sensitive to two reactions, one reaction sensitive to all neutrino flavours, the other sensitive to only the electron neutrino. Thus, such a detector could measure neutrino oscillations directly. Chen, Professor George Ewan, Professor David Sinclair, McDonald, and 12 other scientists formed the original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) collaboration to exploit this idea in 1984. [6] [11] SNO was to be a detector facility using 1000 tonnes of heavy water located 6,800 feet (2,100 m) underground in a mine outside Sudbury, Ontario. Chen died of leukemia in November 1987, however.

In August 2001, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, led by McDonald since 1989, reported observations that directly suggested electron neutrinos from the Sun were oscillating into muon and tau neutrinos. McDonald is a co-recipient of the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2016 for the discovery of neutrino oscillations and demonstrating that neutrinos have mass. [4] [12]

Professor McDonald is now participating in research with the SNO+ and DEAP-3600 experiments at SNOLAB, an expanded underground laboratory at the original SNO underground site and with the DarkSide-20k collaboration developing an experiment at the underground laboratory near Gran Sasso, Italy.

Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute

The Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute was inaugurally named the Canadian Particle Astrophysics Research Centre before renaming itself the Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute in May 2018, in recognition of Dr. Arthur B. McDonald's trailblazing work making Canada a leader in astroparticle physics.

Humanitarian work

In the spring of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing shortages, McDonald became one of the leaders of a project to mass-produce mechanical ventilators at low cost. [13] McDonald has stated that the project was initiated by Princeton Professor Cristiano Galbiati who was locked down in Milan, Italy. [14] He inspired action by his colleagues on the DarkSide-20k Dark Matter physics experiment after recognizing the similarities between the requirements of a ventilator and those of particle physics experiments. [15] McDonald led the Canadian team with members from TRIUMF laboratory, CNL Chalk River, SNOLAB and the McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute after strong positive response from the Directors of these institutions. The design, called the Mechanical Ventilator Milano, is based on the Manley ventilator but uses modern electronics wherever possible. [16] The details, first published on March 23 by about 150 collaborators, were released under the CERN Open Hardware Licence. [17] The project received the support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who anticipated an initial order of 30,000 to Canadian hospitals from several suppliers. [18] An order has been placed for 10,000 units with Vexos, Markham.

Selected honours and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neutrino</span> Elementary particle with extremely low mass

A neutrino is a fermion that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small (-ino) that it was long thought to be zero. The rest mass of the neutrino is much smaller than that of the other known elementary particles. The weak force has a very short range, the gravitational interaction is extremely weak due to the very small mass of the neutrino, and neutrinos do not participate in the electromagnetic interaction or the strong interaction. Thus, neutrinos typically pass through normal matter unimpeded and undetected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudbury Neutrino Observatory</span> Underground laboratory in Ontario, Canada

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was a neutrino observatory located 2100 m underground in Vale's Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The detector was designed to detect solar neutrinos through their interactions with a large tank of heavy water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar neutrino</span> Extremely light particle produced by the Sun

A solar neutrino is a neutrino originating from nuclear fusion in the Sun's core, and is the most common type of neutrino passing through any source observed on Earth at any particular moment. Neutrinos are elementary particles with extremely small rest mass and a neutral electric charge. They only interact with matter via the weak interaction and gravity, making their detection very difficult. This has led to the now-resolved solar neutrino problem. Much is now known about solar neutrinos, but the research in this field is ongoing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homestake experiment</span> Underground experiment to count solar neutrinos

The Homestake experiment was an experiment headed by astrophysicists Raymond Davis, Jr. and John N. Bahcall in the late 1960s. Its purpose was to collect and count neutrinos emitted by nuclear fusion taking place in the Sun. Bahcall performed the theoretical calculations and Davis designed the experiment. After Bahcall calculated the rate at which the detector should capture neutrinos, Davis's experiment turned up only one third of this figure. The experiment was the first to successfully detect and count solar neutrinos, and the discrepancy in results created the solar neutrino problem. The experiment operated continuously from 1970 until 1994. The University of Pennsylvania took it over in 1984. The discrepancy between the predicted and measured rates of neutrino detection was later found to be due to neutrino "flavour" oscillations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SNOLAB</span> Canadian neutrino laboratory

SNOLAB is a Canadian underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in Vale's Creighton nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities constructed for the original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment.

Astroparticle physics, also called particle astrophysics, is a branch of particle physics that studies elementary particles of astronomical origin and their relation to astrophysics and cosmology. It is a relatively new field of research emerging at the intersection of particle physics, astronomy, astrophysics, detector physics, relativity, solid state physics, and cosmology. Partly motivated by the discovery of neutrino oscillation, the field has undergone rapid development, both theoretically and experimentally, since the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SNO+</span>

SNO+ is a physics experiment designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, with secondary measurements of proton–electron–proton (pep) solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos from radioactive decays in the Earth, and reactor neutrinos. It is under construction using the underground equipment already installed for the former Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment at SNOLAB. It could also observe supernovae neutrinos if a supernova occurs in our galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DEAP</span> Dark matter search experiment

DEAP is a direct dark matter search experiment which uses liquid argon as a target material. DEAP utilizes background discrimination based on the characteristic scintillation pulse-shape of argon. A first-generation detector (DEAP-1) with a 7 kg target mass was operated at Queen's University to test the performance of pulse-shape discrimination at low recoil energies in liquid argon. DEAP-1 was then moved to SNOLAB, 2 km below Earth's surface, in October 2007 and collected data into 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoji Totsuka</span> Japanese physicist

Yoji Totsuka was a Japanese physicist and Special University Professor, Emeritus, University of Tokyo. A leader in the study of solar and atmospheric neutrinos, he was a scientist and director at Kamioka Observatory, Super-Kamiokande and the High Energy Physics Laboratory (KEK) in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canfranc Underground Laboratory</span>

The Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) is a world-class deep underground laboratory designed for research in neutrino physics, dark matter and other unusual phenomena in nature that require very low environmental radioactivity to be observed.

The solar neutrino problem concerned a large discrepancy between the flux of solar neutrinos as predicted from the Sun's luminosity and as measured directly. The discrepancy was first observed in the mid-1960s and was resolved around 2002.

A geoneutrino is a neutrino or antineutrino emitted in decay of radionuclide naturally occurring in the Earth. Neutrinos, the lightest of the known subatomic particles, lack measurable electromagnetic properties and interact only via the weak nuclear force when ignoring gravity. Matter is virtually transparent to neutrinos and consequently they travel, unimpeded, at near light speed through the Earth from their point of emission. Collectively, geoneutrinos carry integrated information about the abundances of their radioactive sources inside the Earth. A major objective of the emerging field of neutrino geophysics involves extracting geologically useful information from geoneutrino measurements. Analysts from the Borexino collaboration have been able to get to 53 events of neutrinos originating from the interior of the Earth.

The Helium And Lead Observatory (HALO) is a neutrino detector at SNOLab for the Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS). It began engineering operation on May 8, 2012, and joined as an operational part of SNEWS in October 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takaaki Kajita</span> Japanese physicist

Takaaki Kajita is a Japanese physicist, known for neutrino experiments at the Kamioka Observatory – Kamiokande and its successor, Super-Kamiokande. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald. On 1 October 2020, he became the president of the Science Council of Japan.

Herbert Hwa-sen Chen was a theoretical and experimental physicist at the University of California at Irvine known for his contributions in the field of neutrino detection. Chen's work on observations of elastic neutrino-electron scattering provided important experimental support for the electroweak theory of the standard model of particle physics. In 1984 Chen realized that the deuterium of heavy water could be used as a detector that would distinguish the flavors of solar neutrinos. This idea led Chen to develop plans for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory that would eventually make fundamental measurements demonstrating that neutrinos were particles with mass.

Eugene William Beier is an American physicist.

Karsten M. Heeger is a German–American physicist and Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Yale University, where he also serves as both chair of the Yale Department of Physics and director of Wright Laboratory. His work is primarily in the area of neutrino physics, focusing on the study of neutrino oscillations, neutrino mass, and dark matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jocelyn Monroe</span> American experimental particle physicist

Jocelyn Monroe is an American experimental particle physicist who is a professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research considers the development of novel detectors as part of the search for dark matter. In 2016 she was honoured with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her work on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.

Eric B. Norman is an American physicist. He is a professor in the graduate school of the University of California, Berkeley.

Nigel Smith is a British Canadian astroparticle physicist and the Executive Director and CEO at TRIUMF.

References

  1. ↑ "McDonald, Prof. Arthur Bruce" . Who's Who . Vol. 2015 (online Oxford University Press  ed.). A & C Black.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "Past Winner 2003 NSERC Award of Excellence McDonald". Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  3. 1 2 "CV Arthur B. McDonald" (PDF). www.queensu.ca. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-01-07. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  4. 1 2 3 "Arthur B. McDonald". www.fi.edu. The Franklin Institute. 2014-01-15. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Gibson, Victoria (October 8, 2015). "Queen's professor awarded Nobel Prize". Queen's Journal. Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015" . Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  7. 1 2 "Interview with Arthur B. McDonald". Archived from the original on 17 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-02.
  8. ↑ "Board of Directors". Perimeter Institute. 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-10-07. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  9. ↑ "Arthur B. McDonald Biographical". Nobel Media AB. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  10. ↑ Chen, Herbert H. (September 1985). "Direct Approach to Resolve the Solar-Neutrino Problem". Physical Review Letters. 55 (14): 1534–1536. Bibcode:1985PhRvL..55.1534C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1534. PMID   10031848.
  11. ↑ Ewan, G.T.; Davidson, W.F. (2005). "Early Development of the Underground SNO Laboratory in Canada" (PDF). Physics in Canada. 61: 339–346, 347–350. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  12. ↑ Spears, Tom (9 November 2015). "Neutrino Nobel winner Art McDonald nabs second big physics prize". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  13. ↑ Knox, Melinda (2020-04-07). "Easy=to-build ventilators". Queen's Gazette. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  14. ↑ "Cristiano Galbiati". Department of Physics. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  15. ↑ Semeniuk, Ivan (2020-03-29). "Nobel laureate leads push for simple made-in-Canada ventilator". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  16. ↑ Shen, Allan (2020-04-07). "U. physicist, colleagues develop ventilator prototype amidst national equipment shortage". The Daily Princetonian. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  17. ↑ Galbiati, C.; Abba, A.; Agnes, P.; Amaudruz, P.; Arba, M.; Ardellier-Desages, F.; Badia, C.; Batignani, G.; Bellani, G.; Bianchi, G.; Bishop, D. (2021). "The novel Mechanical Ventilator Milano for the COVID-19 pandemic". Physics of Fluids. 33 (3): 037122. arXiv: 2003.10405 . Bibcode:2021PhFl...33c7122A. doi:10.1063/5.0044445. PMC   8060010 . PMID   33897243.
  18. ↑ Cousins, Ben (2020-04-07). "Nobel Prize winner helping create simple ventilator for mass production in Canada". CTV News. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  19. 1 2 "Search Results: Arthur B. McDonald". Killam Laureates. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  20. ↑ "Order of Canada citation". 2018-06-11.
  21. ↑ "Arthur McDonald biography". Royal Society. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  22. ↑ "Henry Marshall Tory Medal". Royal Society of Canada. Archived from the original on 2012-03-11. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  23. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015". www.nobelprize.org.
  24. ↑ "Order of Canada Appointments". The Governor General of Canada His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston. Governor General of Canada . Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  25. ↑ "229781 Arthurmcdonald (2008 PS1)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  26. ↑ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  27. ↑ National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected, News from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, May 3, 2016, archived from the original on May 6, 2016, retrieved 2016-05-14.
  28. ↑ "Order of Nova Scotia" . Retrieved 2016-12-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.