On this day in 1932 Carl Anderson discovered the electrons antiparticle, which he named the positron. Paul Dirac had predicted the particles existence one year earlier based on the least unreasonable negative solution to his relativistic wave equation. Although the positron had been previously observed by others, Anderson designed an experiment specifically to detect it and recognized the particle for what it was. He used a cloud chamber, which cannot ordinarily identify a particles direction: The trajectory of an electron going from left to right, say, would be bent in exactly the same way by a magnetic field as that of a positron going from right to left. Anderson resolved that ambiguity by inserting a lead plate in his apparatus. He could tell which particles had gone through the plate because, having slowed down, their radii of curvature were smaller. Anderson was awarded the 1936 Nobel physics prize for his discovery.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 13:34:20 +0000
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