Abstract
Edinburgh Royal Society of Edinburgh, December 6. H. J. BHABHA: Production of electron showers by cosmic rays. Blackett and Occhialini showed in 1932 that cosmic rays produce showers. The quantum theory is capable of explaining these showers. Very high energy electrons lose practically their whole energy by emitting a few high energy quanta. Each high energy quantum is chiefly absorbed by the creation of a pair of positive and negative electrons. When, therefore, a very high energy electron passes through matter, it emits a few hard quanta, each of which in turn produces an electron pair, which again emit quanta and so on. Thus, if the initial energy be high enough, many hundred particles may be created, forming a shower.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 141, 90–91 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141090a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141090a0