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The thin trail of the positron
is seen in the middle of the photo. The positron moves
upwards through a horizontal 3 mm lead plate and its
trajectory is curved by a magnetic field. The direction
was determined from the observation that the particle
had lost energy going through the lead plate and was
therefore curving more in the magnetic field. |
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Dirac's work meant that light
could be properly described as either a wave or a particle
for the first time. Perhaps Dirac's most impressive achievement
was the prediction of the positron – the antimatter
partner of the electron with the same mass and spin but
with opposite charge. Dirac's new formulation of quantum
mechanics won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 along
with Schrödinger. The positron was subsequently discovered
by Anderson in 1932, a feat which won him the Nobel Prize
in Physics in 1936. |
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 - Erwin Schrödinger »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 - Paul Adrien
Maurice Dirac »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1936 -
Carl David Anderson »
