CARL D. ANDERSON DISCOVERS THE POSITRON IN 1932

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Carl David Anderson, the American physicist, who discovered the positron on a day like today in 1932.

Carl David Anderson (September 3, 1905-January 11, 1991) was an American physicist. He is best known for his discovery of the positron in 1932, an achievement for which he received the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics, and of the muon in 1936.

Anderson was born in New York City, the son of Swedish immigrants. He studied physics and engineering at Caltech (B.S., 1927; Ph.D., 1930). Under the supervision of Robert A. Millikan, he began investigations into cosmic rays during the course of which he encountered unexpected particle tracks in his (modern versions now commonly referred to as an Anderson) cloud chamber photographs that he correctly interpreted as having been created by a particle with the same mass as the electron, but with opposite electrical charge.

This discovery, announced in 1932 and later confirmed by others, validated Paul Dirac's theoretical prediction of the existence of the positron. Anderson first detected the particles in cosmic rays. He then produced more conclusive proof by shooting gamma rays produced by the natural radioactive nuclide into other materials, resulting in the creation of positron-electron pairs. For this work, Anderson shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics with Victor Hess.

Fifty years later, Anderson acknowledged that his discovery was inspired by the work of his Caltech classmate Chung-Yao Chao, whose research formed the foundation from which much of Anderson's work developed but was not credited at the time.

Anderson spent all of his academic and research career at Caltech. During World War II, he conducted research in rocketry there. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1938. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950. He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1975.

Anderson died on January 11, 1991, and his remains were interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California

The positron or antielectron is the particle with an electric charge of +1e, a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. It is the antiparticle (antimatter counterpart) of the electron. When a positron collides with an electron, annihilation occurs. If this collision occurs at low energies, it results in the production of two or more photons.

Positrons can be created by positron emission radioactive decay (through weak interactions), or by pair production from a sufficiently energetic photon which is interacting with an atom in a material.

More information: CERN

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Fethullah Gulen