Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

440 results found

conservation laws

(Encyclopedia)conservation laws, in physics, basic laws that together determine which processes can or cannot occur in nature; each law maintains that the total value of the quantity governed by that law, e.g., mas...

cosmic rays

(Encyclopedia)cosmic rays, charged particles moving at nearly the speed of light reaching the earth from outer space. Primary cosmic rays consist mostly of protons (nuclei of hydrogen atoms), some alpha particles (...

quantum chromodynamics

(Encyclopedia)quantum chromodynamics (QCD), quantum field theory that describes the properties of the strong interactions between quarks and between protons and neutrons in the framework of quantum theory. Quarks p...

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

(Encyclopedia)Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), physical science research center located near Batavia, Ill., est. 1968 as the National Accelerator Laboratory, renamed 1974 in honor of Enrico Fermi. ...

strong interactions

(Encyclopedia)strong interactions, actions between elementary particles mediated, or carried, by gluons. They are responsible for the binding of protons and neutrons in the nucleus and interactions between quarks. ...

Tomonaga, Sinichiro

(Encyclopedia)Tomonaga, Sinichiro or Sin-Itiro, 1906–79, Japanese physicist, Ph.D. Kyoto Imperial Univ., 1939. He was a professor at Bunrika Univ. (now Tokyo Univ. of Education) from 1941 to 1956, then served pre...

particle accelerator

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Linear accelerator (LINAC) CE5 Cyclotron: As the charged particles move faster, they spiral out to the edge of the Ds. particle accelerator, apparatus used in nuclear physics to produce bea...

particle detector

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Particle detector—Bubble chamber: A. Pressure drops as piston is raised; B. Charged particles passing through chamber ionize atoms in liquid; C. Bubbles form around atoms and form visible tra...

electroweak theory

(Encyclopedia)electroweak theory, a unified field theory that describes two of the fundamental forces in nature, electromagnetism (see electromagnetic radiation) and the weak interaction. The electroweak theory der...

spark chamber

(Encyclopedia)spark chamber, in physics, device for recording the passage of elementary particles produced by reactions in a particle accelerator. Particles pass through a stack of metal plates or wire grids that a...