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Canadian, Japanese scientists share Nobel Prize in physics

Arthur B. McDonald and Takaaki Kajita were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their key contributions to the experiments which demonstrated that neutrinos change identities"

MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Two scientists, Arthur B. McDonald from Canada and Takaaki Kajita from Japan, were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday "for their key contributions to the experiments which demonstrated that neutrinos change identities."

"Around the turn of the millennium, Takaaki Kajita presented the discovery that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch between two identities on their way to the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan," the Nobel Committee said in a statement. "Meanwhile, the research group in Canada led by Arthur B. McDonald could demonstrate that the neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth."

"For particle physics this was a historic discovery," the committee said. "A neutrino puzzle that physicists had wrestled with for decades had been resolved."

The Nobel Prize is worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($960,000).