<IMG SRC="navi.gif" WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=440 usemap="#navi" BORDER=0> Particle Decays And Annihilations : Bubble Chamber And Decays

This is an actual bubble chamber photograph of an antiproton (entering from the bottom of the picture) colliding with a proton (at rest) and annihilating. Eight pions were produced in this annihilation. One decayed into a + and a . The paths of positive and negative pions curve opposite ways in the magnetic field.

Bubble chambers are an older type of detector. As charged particles pass through a bubble chamber, they leave a trail of tiny bubbles that make it easy to track the particles.

We have talked a lot about decays and annihilations, so let's now look at some examples of these processes.