The Capture and Decay of Mesons in Photographic Emulsions

Abstract

Meson events have been studied in Eastman NTB-3 plates which were exposed to cosmic radiation in the stratosphere by means of balloons. It is found that 68±7 percent of the mesons ending in the emulsion which do not produce stars or without associated secondary mesons decay with the emission of a high energy electron. Of these mesons, 11.6±1.5 percent (presumably 23.2 percent of the negative mesons) have associated electrons with energies in the interval from 15 to 70 kev. The energy distribution of these electrons is well represented by a simple exponential with a mean energy of 17 kev. Electrons with energies in the interval from 15 to 70 kev are observed from 19.6±4.0 percent of the stars caused by negative $\pi$-mesons.