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PhysRev 65 343

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LETTER 'I 0 THE EDITOR 343

production of mesons by a cascade process. All volume of a Wilson chamber. It appears to start
the tracks appear to be of the same age. The as a number of ionization strands, diverging from
tracks in Group 1 have originated outside the a small region, which subsequently broaden and
chamber; the other two groups have originated merge into a dense volume of ionization. A
within the chamber. The left-hand track of group possible interpretation of the burst according to I
2 is absorbed in the lead plate (2.2 cm), and its is as follows: A high energy proton has by a
energy is &4&10 ev. The four tracks in group 3 process of nuclear collision given rise to a cascade
appear to start as a pair which is doubled again. production of fast vector mesons. The latter have
These tracks are not appreciably scattered during within a short length disintegrated into high
their traversal through the lead plate, but they energy electrons, from which several cascade
have produced knock-on electrons. showers have started.
The above theory enables us to correlate and
BURST PRODUCTION interpret many findings on penetrating particles
One of us (M. S.)~ has recently published a obtained from Wilson chamber photographs and
photograph of a burst originating in the gaseous from tracks on photographic plates. A detailed
comparison between the predictions of the theory
"M. Sinha, Phys. Rev. 64, 248 (1943). and our findings will be given elsewhere.

PH YSI CAL REVIEW VOLUME 65, NUiVI BERS 11 AND 12 J UN E 1 AND 15, 1944

Letter to tj'ae Ecitor in a magnetic field H radiates per unit of path the energy
—(dE/dX) = 2/3(e'/mc')'(E/mc')'P(V/c)H j' (1)
~ where e is the charge, m the mass, V the velocity, and E the
ROMPT publzcation of brief reports of important dis-
~ energy of the electron; E is assumed much greater than mc2.
coveries in physics may be secured by addressing them
~

~ In the betatron V is normal to H and practically for the


to this department. The closing date for this department is the
whole path equal to c. Then we have
third of the month. Because of the late closing date for the sec-
tion no Proof can be shown to authors. The Board of Editors
—(dE/dX) = 2/3(e'/mc')'(EH/mc')'. (2)
does not hold itself responsible for the opinions expressed by The limiting value of energy Ep is to be determined from
the corres pondents. Communications should not in general ex- the condition that the radiated energy (2) will be equal to
ceed 600 words in length. energy gained by the electron in the electric field produced
by magnetic flux per unit of path
On the Maximal Energy Attainable
in a Betatron 3 (3)
mc~ 2~Rpc . c
D. IxvANI'NKo AND I. PoMERANcIIUK
Physical Institute of the Moscow State University, Moscow, and
H=dH/dt rp=e'/mc .
Physico-Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the
U. S. S. R., Leningrad, U.S. S.R. Here Rp is the radius of the orbit, p is the induction flux.
May 18, 1944 Hence:
Ep 3eRp H &

Y means of a recently constructed induction accelera- mc 2rp cH (4)


tor-betatron, Kerst succeeded in obtaining electrons
up to 20 Mev. ~ The principle of operation of the betatron Ta. king for H and E the values now being in use we get
is the acceleration of electrons by a tangential electric field Ep=5)&10' ev, which is only five times as great as the
produced by a changing magnetic flux, which is connected energy which one expects to obtain in the betatron now
with the magnetic field keeping electrons on the orbit by a under construction. From (4) one sees that Ep is inversely
simple relation, I n contrast to a cyclotron, whose applicabil- proportional to the magnetic field applied and propor-
ity is essentially limited to the non-relativistic region on the tional to the square root of energy gained in the rotation
ground of defocusing of orbits due to the change of mass at electric field per unit of path. All this requires the using of
high energies, there is no such limitation for the betatron. smaller H or of higher frequencies with the purpose of
We may point out, however, that quite another circum- getting higher limiting values of Ep.
stance would lead as well to the existence of a limitation The radiative dissipation of energy of electrons moving
for maximal energy attainable in a betatron. This is the in a magnetic field must be also of importance for the dis-
radiation of electrons in the magnetic field. I ndeed, elec- cussion of the focusing of the electronic beam, as the energy
trons moving in a magnetic field will be accelerated and of particles being accelerated will grow more slowly with
must radiate in accordance with the classical electro- the growth of II if the radiation is taken into account.
dynamics. One can easily see that quantum effects do not I his latter question may deserve a separate discussion.
play here any important role as the dimension of the orbit ' D. W. Kerst, Phys. Rev. 61, 93 (1942).
~

' D. W. Kerst and J.


I. Pomeranchuk, Phys. 2, 65 (1940).
is very great. As was shown by one of us' an electron moving R. Serber, Phys. Rev. 60, 53 (1941).

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