São Paulo - The Arthur McDonald Canadian work contributed to an irreparable damage on the understanding that physicists have of the universe - and that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics 2015.
McDonald is one of those physicists who study the infinitely small: the "blocks" that make up elementary all the matter in the universe, which are known as fundamental particles.
In their experiments on neutrinos, one of the most mysterious fundamental particles, the scientist confirmed that they have mass - something that contradicts the Standard Model of physics, a set of theories that try to explain how they interact all particles and all the forces of the cosmos.
Something paradoxically frustrating for physicists is that, although they know that the Standard Model is incomplete, it keeps predicting well the results of experiments. Neutrinos are the "rebels" who opened the first breach in this model, flinging open the doors to a new physics.
"We have shown that neutrinos have mass, although tiny, thousands of times smaller than that of electrons. Now we know that the Universe Physics goes beyond what is explained by the Standard Model," McDonald said in an interview to the state.
The scientist did his experiments within an incredible underground laboratory built in a nickel mine now owned by mining company Vale. At the same time, the Japanese Takaaki Kajita - with whom the Canadian shared the Nobel Prize in 2015 - performed similar experiments in a laboratory in Japan.
There are three types of neutrinos: the electron neutrino, the muon and tau. The two scientists showed that each of them is able to change identity and become one of the other two - something that is only possible for particles with mass. This blow to the Standard Model can be the beginning of a new physics. "Winning the Nobel Prize is very good, the recognition, but scientists are already very happy if they can make a truly innovative discovery," said McDonald. The information is the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
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