Commins's students from that era included Frank Calaprice, Steven Chu, Philip Bucksbaum, and Persis Drell.
Freedman's thesis experiment [3] [4]tested Bell's inequality, which distinguishing orthodox quantum mechanics from hidden variable theories.
That experiment agreed with the predictions of orthodox quantum mechanics and disagreed with hidden variable theories by six standard deviations.
[6] From this auspicious start, Freedman carried out a series of experiments in atomic, nuclear, and particle physics testing the most fundamental theories and principles.
The ratio of the axial to vector coupling of the neutron in beta decay is a fundamental parameter and the measurement [9] of gA/gV=1.262±0.005 made at Grenoble in 1985 by Freedman and collaborators set a new standard for precision.
Reports of narrow lines in e+e− coincidences in heavy ion collisions prompted Freedman and collaborators to seek an observation of the effect.
Atsuto Suzuki of Tokyo and Tohoku Universities recognized that a collection of Japanese nuclear reactors provided just the needed source for such an experiment.