Carl David Anderson

Biography

Carl David Anderson was born on September 3, 1905, in New York City, to Swedish immigrants, Carl David Anderson Sr. and Emma Adolfina Ajaxson.

Anderson studied physics and engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), receiving his B.S. in 1927 and his Ph.D. in 1930.

Anderson spent the entirety of his career at Caltech; he was Research Fellow (1930–1933) and Assistant Professor to Associate Professor of Physics (1933–1939), before finally becoming Professor of Physics in 1939—a position he held until his retirement in 1976.{{Cite web|title=Carl D. Anderson|url=https://history.aip.org/phn/11409007.html|url-status=live|publisher=American Institute of Physics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250214090103/https://history.aip.org/phn/11409007.html |archive-date=2025-02-14|access-date=2025-11-29}}

In 1946, Anderson married Lorraine Bergman, with whom he had two sons.

Anderson died on January 11, 1991, in San Marino, California, at the age of 85. His remains were interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California. He was a Christian.

Research

Discovery of the positron

Under the supervision of Robert Millikan, Anderson began investigations into cosmic rays during the course of which he encountered unexpected particle tracks in his (modern versions now commonly referred to as an Anderson) cloud chamber photographs that he correctly interpreted as having been created by a particle with the same mass as the electron, but with opposite electric charge.

This discovery, announced in 1932 and later confirmed by others, validated Paul Dirac's theoretical prediction of the existence of the positron. Anderson first detected the particles in cosmic rays. He then produced more conclusive proof by shooting gamma rays produced by the natural radioactive nuclide ThC'' (208Tl) into other materials, resulting in the creation of positron-electron pairs.

For this work, Anderson shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics with Victor Hess. Fifty years later, Anderson acknowledged that his discovery was inspired by the work of his Caltech classmate, Chung-Yao Chao, whose research formed the foundation from which much of Anderson's work developed but was not credited at the time.

Discovery of the muon

In 1936, Anderson and his first graduate student, Seth Neddermeyer, discovered the muon (or 'mu-meson', as it was known for many years), a subatomic particle 207 times more massive than the electron, but with the same negative electric charge and spin 1/2 as the electron, again in cosmic rays.

Anderson and Neddermeyer at first believed that they had seen a pion, a particle which Hideki Yukawa had postulated in his theory of the strong interaction. When it became clear that what Anderson had seen was not the pion, the physicist I. I. Rabi, puzzled as to how the unexpected discovery could fit into any logical scheme of particle physics, quizzically asked "Who ordered that?" (sometimes the story goes that he was dining with colleagues at a Chinese restaurant at the time).

The muon was the first of a long list of subatomic particles whose discovery initially baffled theoreticians who could not make the confusing "zoo" fit into some tidy conceptual scheme. Willis Lamb, in his 1955 Nobel Prize Lecture, joked that he had heard it said that "the finder of a new elementary particle used to be rewarded by a Nobel Prize, but such a discovery now ought to be punished by a 10,000 dollar fine."

Recognition

Awards

Memberships

Select publications

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References

References

1. "Carl D. Anderson - Physics Tree".
2. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1936". [[Nobel Foundation]].
3. "Carl D. Anderson – Biographical".
4. Anderson, Carl David. (1999). "The Discovery of Anti‑Matter: The Autobiography of Carl David Anderson, the Second Youngest Man to Win the Nobel Prize". World Scientific Publishing.
5. ThC" is a historical designation of ²⁰⁸Tl, see [[Decay chains]]
6. [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1936/ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1936]. nobelprize.org
7. Cao, Cong. (2004). "Chinese Science and the 'Nobel Prize Complex'". Minerva.
8. Neddermeyer, Seth H.. (1937-05-15). "Note on the Nature of Cosmic-Ray Particles". Physical Review.
9. Willis E. Lamb, Jr. (December 12, 1955) [https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/lamb-lecture.pdf Fine structure of the hydrogen atom]. ''Nobel Lecture''
10. "Carl David Anderson". [[Franklin Institute]].
11. "Member History". [[American Philosophical Society]].
12. "Cral D. Anderson". [[National Academy of Sciences]].
13. "Carl David Anderson". [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].