Abstract
COUNTER and cloud chamber1 evidence indicates that mesons originate in collisions of fast nucleons with nuclei, the recoiling nucleons giving rise to stars of heavy charged particles. As yet it is not quite certain whether only π-mesons (mass 286 me which are known to have strong coupling with nucleons and decay into light μ-mesons (mass 215 me), are generated, or if light mesons can also be directly produced. Observations by Occhialini and Powell2 on very slow mesons generated in stars in nuclear emulsions, and the artificial production of π-mesons at Berkeley3, are in favour of the former hypothesis. In this note we describe measurements of the absorption of π-mesons in dense matter, from which we can determine approximately their rate of production and energy spectrum.
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References
Rochester, G. D., Rev. Mod. Phys., 21, 20 (1949). Jánossy, L., and Rochester, G. D., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 183, 181 (1944).
Occhialini, G. P. S., and Powell, C. F., Nature, 162, 168 (1948).
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Harding, J. B., Lattimore, S., Li, T., and Perkins, D. H., Nature, 163, 319 (1949).
Harding, J. B., Nature, 163, 440 (1949).
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Harding, J., Perkins, D. Production of Heavy Mesons in Cosmic Ray Stars. Nature 164, 285–287 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164285a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164285a0
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