bubble chamber
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008
bubble chamber device for detecting charged particles and other radiation by means of tracks of bubbles left in a chamber filled with liquid hydrogen or other liquefied gas. It was invented in 1952 by Donald Glaser. The bubble chamber consists essentially of a sealed chamber to be filled with a liquefied gas and constructed so that the pressure inside can be reduced quickly. The liquid is originally at a temperature just below its boiling point . When the pressure is reduced, the boiling point becomes lowered so that it is less than the temperature of the liquid, leaving the liquid superheated. When a charged particle passes through this superheated liquid, it leaves a trail of tiny gas bubbles that can be illuminated and photographed. The track of a charged particle can be used to identify the particle and to analyze complex events in which it may be involved. If a magnetic field is present, the tracks of the particles will be curved, positively charged particles curving in one direction and negatively charged particles curving in the opposite direction. The degree of curvature depends on the mass, speed, and charge of the particle. Neutral particles can be detected indirectly by applying various conservation laws to the events recorded in the bubble chamber or by observing their decay into pairs of oppositely charged particles. The bubble chamber is particularly useful for studying high-energy particles that would pass through a cloud chamber too quickly to leave a detailed enough track but which pass more slowly through the bubble chamber because of the greater density of the liquid. Liquid hydrogen and helium are commonly used in bubble chambers, with special equipment needed to maintain these gases in their liquid state (see low-temperature physics ). For experiments requiring very dense liquids, a variety of organic compounds may be used. See elementary particles ; particle accelerator ; spark chamber .
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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
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Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses
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bubble chamber
World Encyclopedia
bubble chamber Device for detecting and identifying ... superheated liquid leaves a trail of tiny gas bubbles that can be illuminated and photographed ... If a magnetic field is applied to the chamber, the tracks are curved according to ... Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the bubble ...
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bubble chamber
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
... uses a superheated liquid which boils into tiny bubbles of vapour along the tracks of the particles. As ... liquid is close to its boiling point, the first bubbles form around these ions. The observable tracks ... particles. Developed in 1952 by Donald Glaser , the bubble chamber proved very useful in ...
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cloud chamber
World Encyclopedia
cloud chamber Instrument used to detect and identify ... radiation. The principle is the same as the bubble chamber , except liquefied gas is replaced by ... photographed for analysis. In a diffusion cloud chamber, a large temperature difference is maintained between the top and bottom of the ...
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spark chamber
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
... dashes. The spark chamber has replaced the bubble chamber in certain applications. Although the particle paths are recorded more accurately in the bubble chamber, the bubble chamber indiscriminately records all events that occur ...
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cloud chamber
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
... by lowering the piston, the gas-vapor mixture is cooled, producing supersaturation. Cloud chambers of this design are sometimes called the pulsed type, since they do not maintain a continuous state of supersaturation of the vapor. A more recent design is the diffusion cloud chamber. In this device a large ...
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