Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Detection of a strange particle

In 1947, scientists found a previously unseen particle, which is now called a neutral kaon. This work led to the discovery of elementary particles known as quarks, and ultimately to the establishment of the standard model of particle physics.
  1. Taku Yamanaka

    1. Taku Yamanaka is in the Department of Physics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

In the late 1940s, the physicists George Rochester and Clifford Butler1 observed something unusual in their charged-particle detector. They were studying the interactions between high-energy cosmic rays and a lead plate in the detector when they spotted V-shaped particle tracks (Fig. 1a). The small gap between the lead plate and the vertex of the tracks indicated that an invisible neutral particle had been produced in the plate, had travelled for a short distance and had then decayed into two visible charged particles. The mass of the neutral particle was about 1,000 times that of an electron, implying that it must be a previously unreported type of particle. This discovery paved the way for many puzzles and surprises in particle physics in the decades that followed.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 575, 36-38 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02841-9

References

  1. Rochester, G. D. & Butler, C. C. Nature 160, 855–857 (1947).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Yukawa, H. Proc. Phys.-Math. Soc. Jpn 17, 48–57 (1935).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Perkins, D. H. Nature 159, 126–127 (1947).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Lattes, C. M. G., Muirhead, H., Occhialini, G. P. S. & Powell, C. F. Nature 159, 694–697 (1947).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Neddermeyer, S. H. & Anderson, C. D. Phys. Rev. 51, 884–886 (1937).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Leprince-Ringuet, L. & L’Héritier, M. C.R. Acad. Sci. 219, 618–620 (1944).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gell-Mann, M. Phys. Rev. 92, 833–834 (1953).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Nakano, T. & Nishijima, K. Prog. Theor. Phys. 10, 581–582 (1953).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wu, C. S., Ambler, E., Hayward, R. W., Hoppes, D. D. & Hudson, R. P. Phys. Rev. 105, 1413–1415 (1957).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Garwin, R. L., Lederman, L. M. & Weinrich, M. Phys. Rev. 105, 1415–1417 (1957).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Christenson, J. H., Cronin, J. W., Fitch, V. L. & Turlay, R. Phys. Rev. Lett. 13, 138–140 (1964).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Gell-Mann, M. Phys. Lett. 8, 214–215 (1964).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Zweig, G. CERN Rep. No. CERN-TH-401 (1964).

  14. Kobayashi, M. & Maskawa, T. Prog. Theor. Phys. 49, 652–657 (1973).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Alavi-Harati, A. et al. (KTeV Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 22–27 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. The NA48 Collaboration. Eur. Phys. J. C 22, 231–254 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Aubert, B. et al. (BABAR Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 091801 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Abe, K. et al. (Belle Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 091802 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Ahn, J. K. et al. (KOTO Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 021802 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. The NA62 Collaboration. Phys. Lett. B 791, 156–166 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

    Dallas, Texas (US)

    The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

    The Yakoub and Sulzer labs at Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University

    Boston, Massachusetts (US)

    Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital

  • Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

    Computational Postdoc - Artificial Intelligence in Oncology and Regulatory Genomics and Cancer Evolution at the DKFZ - limited to 2 years

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • Computational Postdoc

    The German Cancer Research Center is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany.

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • PhD / PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/f/d)

    The Institute of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine / University of Freiburg is looking for a PhD/PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/w/d)

    Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    University of Freiburg

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links