California Institute of Technology
"For his pivotal contributions to our understanding of the weak interaction and fundamental symmetries in the nucleus. We especially note (1) his measurements of positron polarization in beta decay and their impact on the development of the V-A theory of weak interactions, (2) his pioneering studies providing convincing evidence for parity violation in nuclear transitions, and (3) his frontier defining searches for violations of time-reversal invariance in nuclei and for neutrino oscillations."Background:
Boehm pioneered the use of nuclear physics techniques to explore fundamental questions concerning the weak interactions and the nature of neutrinos. He developed the beta-gamma curricular polarization correlation method as a means of establishing the spin and angular momentum relationships in beta decay, and the experience permitted him to make the first observation of hadonic parity violation in a nuclear system. In addition to searching for violations of time-reversal invariance in nuclei,Boehm also spearheaded experiments which used the electron antineutrinos from the Goesgen reactor to place limits on neutrino oscillations, providing some of the most stringent existing bounds on neutrino mass.