Borexino result among the “Breakthroughs of the Year 2014”

The magazine Physics World has selected the Borexino result as one of the top ten "Breakthroughs of the Year 2014" in physics. The Borexino collaboration was first to succeed in detecting neutrinos from the main nuclear reaction that powers the sun. In the experiment installed at the Italian Gran Sasso underground laboratory physicists from the Technische Universität München (TUM) are involved; one of its co-initiators was TUM Professor Emeritus Franz von Feilitzsch.

Nearly all of the energy generated in the sun involves a chain of nuclear reactions that begins with two protons fusing together to form deuterium along with a positron and a low-energy neutrino. Calculations predict that about 60 billion of these neutrinos pass through a square centimetre on Earth every second, but low-energy neutrinos are particularly difficult to detect and so the theory could not be verified. Now, deep under the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, some of these neutrinos have been detected, confirming the long-established theory of solar fusion.

The criteria for judging the top ten breakthroughs included: fundamental importance of research, significant advance in knowledge, strong connection between theory and experiment and general interest to all physicists. The Physics World 2014 number one "Breakthrough of the Year" goes to ESA's Rosetta mission for being first to land a spacecraft on a comet. Physics World is the member magazine of the British Institute of Physics (IOP) with more than 34,000 members worldwide.

Further information
Physics World
Press release: Physicists observe the creation of solar energy for the first time ever