MonkeyGG2
27 lines
1.6 KiB
HTML
27 lines
1.6 KiB
HTML
<p class="lead">You discovered the τ lepton!</p>
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<section data-min-level="1">
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<h4>The τ lepton</h4>
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<img class="img-responsive" src="assets/info/tau.png" alt="A plot from the original publication" align="right">
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<p>
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The τ (tau) is an elementary particle that can be thought of as a much heavier cousin of the electron, with a spin of ½. It belongs to the family of leptons, along with the electron, the muon, and the three neutrinos. Despite the origin of the word lepton (meaning fine, small, thin) the τ is very massive at 1776.82 MeV/c<sup>2</sup>, which is nearly 3500 times the mass of the electron and around twice the mass of the proton.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section data-min-level="5">
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<h5>The discovery of the τ</h5>
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<p>
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The τ was detected in a series of experiments between 1974 and 1977 by Martin Lewis Perl and his colleagues at the SLAC-LBL group. Their equipment consisted of SLAC’s then-new e<sup>+</sup>e<sup>−</sup> colliding ring, called SPEAR, and the LBL magnetic detector. They could detect and distinguish between leptons, hadrons and photons.
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</p>
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<p>
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Martin Perl shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics with Frederick Reines. The latter was awarded his share of the prize for experimental discovery of the neutrino.
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</p>
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</section>
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<hr>
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<h5><b>Resources</b></h5>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.35.1489" target="_blank">The original publication by M. L. Perl et al.</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_(particle)" target="_blank">The τ lepton on Wikipedia.</a></li>
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</ul>
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