A New Method for the Determination of the Mass of Mesons

Abstract

WE have recently installed at the Jungfraujoch High-Altitude Research Station an apparatus for the determination of the masses, and the signs of the electric charge, of the various types of mesons observed in photographic emulsions exposed to the cosmic radiation. In view of the importance of obtaining reliable information on this subject, and of the desirability that similar experiments should be made by other investigators, we present a brief account of the main features of the method. In doing so, we also have in mind the possibility that charged mesons may be generated artificially in the near future by means of the large synchrotrons and synchrocyclotrons now approaching completion in the United States ; and that our methods may be of use for mass determinations in this field of investigation also.