吴健雄小组宇称不守恒实验的若干史实考释

Reexamining Some Historical Facts about the Parity Non-conservation Experiment by Chien-shiung Wu's Group

吴健雄小组弱相互作用中宇称不守恒实验的成功对杨振宁和李政道得以迅速斩获1957年诺贝尔物理学奖具有决定性的作用。本文以2001年朱约林的科学史博士论文为主要依据,基于当事人留存下来的原始资料或从信息源头入手,对有关吴实验的若干史实进行了考证和辨析,敬畏客观事实,试图拨开迷雾,正本清源,去伪存真,给读者提供准确可靠的信息。“吴实验”的称呼是实至名归的,吴健雄与诺贝尔奖失之交臂最为主要的原因是吴实验痛失独享优先权。

The success of the experiment of parity non-conservation in the weak interaction by Chien-shiung Wu's group played a decisive role in Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee's winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957.Based on primary sources provided in Yuelin Zhu's doctoral dissertation on the subject in 2001,this paper examines and analyzes several historical facts about Wu's experiment to correct some widespread misconceptions.It argues that the label of“The Wu Experiment”is well-deserved,and the main reason Chien-Shiung Wu never received the Nobel Prize was that“The Wu Experiment”did not have clear exclusive priority.