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Instrument

Bubble Chamber

Physics

A bubble chamber tracks the paths of subatomic particles as strings of tiny vapor bubbles that form along their trails through a superheated liquid. Donald A. Glaser built the first working bubble chamber in 1952 to overcome the limitations of the earlier cloud chamber, and its greater liquid density let physicists record collisions in far finer detail, leading to the discovery of a host of new particles; Glaser received the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention.

Facts
Invented Year
1952 2
Measures
Tracks left by electrically charged subatomic particles passing through the chamber. 1
Operating Principle
A piston suddenly drops the pressure on a superheated liquid, and a charged particle's ionization track nucleates a trail of microscopic bubbles, whose curvature in an applied magnetic field reveals the particle's momentum. 1
Resolution
Resolutions down to a few micrometers have been achieved in operated bubble chambers. 1
Open Questions
Operating Range
Not stated as a numeric figure; the chamber's liquid, most often liquid hydrogen, is held just below its boiling point.
Source describes the operating state qualitatively but gives no numeric temperature, pressure or energy range. Retry without SourceSlug after ambiguous duplicate citation rejection (FactQueueId 825).
Classification
Instrument Class
Particle Detector 1
Connections

Anticipated By

Cloud Chamber, Instruments
Source Bubble Chamber (Britannica)

Invented By

Donald Glaser, Scientists

Invented the bubble chamber in 1952 at the University of Michigan.

Source Bubble Chamber (Britannica)

Used In

Physics, Disciplines
Source Bubble Chamber (Britannica)
Sources
1. Bubble Chamber (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Introduction
    used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it
  • Function and use section
    Bubble chambers with resolutions down to a few micrometers (um) have been operated.
  • Lede, instrument class
    A bubble chamber tracks the paths of subatomic particles as strings of tiny vapor bubbles that form along their trails through a superheated liquid.
View the Source
2. Bubble Chamber (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaView the Source

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