"See-through" Device: Physicists Invent a Device to 'See' & 'Study' Electrons

In yet another exciting discovery in the field of particle physics, physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reported that they devised a compact, tabletop particle detector. The significance in this contraption is that it can identify every single electron that is emitted from an ionized or radioactive gas.

Prof. Joe Formaggio of the MIT Physics department says that they would now be able to capture the frequency of an electron as a visual imagery, as the electrons colliding with each other and other atoms would display a change in frequency, which would be visually represented in the image as steps or spikes.

A report highlighting the work conducted by the physicists was published on Physics Review Letter. Magnets are placed to attract electrons that are ejected when the radioactive gas is decaying. The force exerted by the magnet is used to hold up these electrons inside a magnetic bottle.

Inside the bottle the electrons display & emit weak signals, which are used in tracking the activity of the electrons, which typically ranges for several milliseconds. Patterns where then observed and plotted, showing that these electrons tend to vibrate at a baseline frequency until it dies down due to lack of energy. In case there is collision with another atom, there is a sudden increase in the energy & frequency it exhibits.

This would enable physicists to now work on one of its biggest quests - determining the mass of one of the most elementary particles but which are very difficult to detect - neutrinos. Till date, only theories have been postulated and science is yet to give a proven answer on this.

MIT physicists are have studied electron activity in over 100,000 electrons from krypton gas and are now moving towards tritium gas, which decays at a rate that is ideal to study electron activity.