Abstract
THE Bakerian lecture of the Royal Society was delivered on May 25 by Dr. J. Chadwick, who took as his subject “The Neutron”. Neutrons can be liberated by the bombardment of several light elements by a-particles, but, except from beryllium and boron, the yield of particles is very small. In some cases the experiments are consistent with the conservation of energy and momentum in the reactions. With beryllium, however, it is at first sight difficult to account for the whole of the energy available in the disintegration. From the data now available, the mass of the neutron is consistent with the view that the neutron is a complex particle formed by the union of a proton and an electron. Other arguments suggest that the neutron is an elementary particle. As an alternative, one might suppose the proton to be complex, consisting of a neutron and a positive electron, but this view also has certain difficulties. Dr. Chadwick dealt with experiments on the passage of neutrons through matter. Some interesting points appear in the collisions with the lighter nuclei, in particular with protons. In some cases inelastic collisions have been observed in which the atomic nucleus is disintegrated. When the radiation from beryllium, consisting of neutrons and γ-rays, passes through matter, positive electrons are occasionally produced. It is not yet known whether these are due to the action of the neutrons or to the γ-rays. The function of the neutron in the structure of atomic nuclei was also discussed.
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The Neutron. Nature 131, 794 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131794a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131794a0