The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
The bubble chamber is a device that allows physicists to see particle tracks directly in nuclear collision experiments. It was most widely used from the mid-1950s to the 1970s but is still useful because it helps scientists to visualize individual particle interactions.
In 1952, Donald Glaser invented the bubble chamber; he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention in 1960. His prototype used xenon in its chamber, while later models used liquid hydrogen, propane, and freons (such as CFCl and CFBr) instead.
In an active bubble chamber, these liquids are superheated: heated to beyond their usual boiling point under high pressures, then quickly reduced to lower pressures. This leaves them extremely unstable, and bubbles will form anywhere a positive ion occurs. Researchers then shoot particle beams into the liquid chamber and take photographs, using the bubbles to track the paths of positive ions. Some bubble chambers can measure as large as 3.7 m in size and contain up to 30 m3 of liquid.
The bubble chamber has several advantages in collision research. It has excellent resolution, is truly a three-dimensional detector, and can be used for long periods of time. Magnetic fields can easily be set up to run through the chamber, allowing physicists to consider electromagnetic properties of the particles. Experiments also can be repeated for thousands or millions of photographic images with very little energy and cost in resetting the observation chamber.
The bubble chamber does not enjoy the popularity it did in the 1970s, mostly because of one limitation: the liquid in the chamber is both the target and the observation device. Therefore, experiments are limited to targets which can clearly show bubble trails. Within this limitation, however, the bubble chamber is one of the most versatile tools of nuclear physics.