Who they are
Tsung-Dao Lee was a theoretical physicist who, with Chen-Ning Yang, asked whether parity conservation had actually been established for weak interactions. Their 1956 paper proposed experimental tests. Wu and her NBS collaborators subsequently measured an asymmetry in cobalt-60 decay, making Lee’s role the formulation of a testable challenge rather than membership of that five-author experimental team.
He represents the theoretical question that led to a decisive experimental test of physical symmetry.
Selected contributions
- Coauthored the 1956 paper proposing tests of parity conservation in weak interactions.Source ↗
- Helped define the question pursued by Wu and the NBS experimental group.Source ↗Source 2 ↗
Selected works
Academic paper · 1956 · Published journal article; 1957 erratum listed by publisher
Question of Parity Conservation in Weak Interactions
Lee and Yang examine whether evidence actually establishes parity conservation in weak interactions and propose experiments to test it. Their theoretical paper frames the question answered by Wu and her NBS collaborators.
The linked publisher record notes an erratum in Physical Review 106, 1371 (1957); its full text was not inspected.
Reading scope & citation
Freshly read author abstract, byline, publication date and linked erratum notice. The original article and 1957 erratum text were not freshly read. Publisher abstract, authorship, bibliographic details and linked 1957 erratum. Publisher search extraction supplied abstract and metadata; direct DOI open failed. The erratum’s existence was verified, but its full text was not inspected.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRev.104.254
In the timeline
Biography sources & portrait credit
- Experimental Test of Parity Conservation in Beta Decay ↗Physical Review 105, 1413–1415, American Physical Society
- Question of Parity Conservation in Weak Interactions ↗Physical Review / American Physical Society
- Reversal of the Parity Conservation Law in Nuclear Physics ↗National Institute of Standards and Technology; prepared by Ralph P. Hudson
Portrait credit
Nobel foundation. Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Photograph. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
Image source & identification ↗ · Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration) ↗
