Parity nonconservation proposedIn 1956, The Physical Review published a paper by Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang on the Question of Parity Conservation in Weak Interactions. They addressed an issue that had long been believed, but for which there had been no experimental support. Yet, there existed a Theta-Tau Puzzle (C.F. Powell, 1949) in the disintegration of certain cosmic ray particles via the nuclear weak force. Lee and Yang believed this was because of parity violation, which contradicted the generally accepted "law" of conservation of parity. They proposed a study of experiments involving weak interactions. Chien-Shiung Wu validated non-conservation of parity on 27 Dec 1956 in their suggestion to study beta decay of cobalt-60.« |
