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signatures
The following are sketches of the decay signatures that can occur - enabling us to identify certain particles. Depending on the momenta involved (given by the curvatures of the tracks), these basic shapes may be somewhat distorted, but their topologies - numbers of tracks, vees, kinks - will remain.
There will be several references to the fact that whether or not you see the signatures will depend on chance – emphasising the statistical (quantum) nature of subatomic phenomena.
Click on the image for further details.
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Very often, particles leave the bubble chamber without revealing their identities - making it impossible to say what happened just by looking at the picture.
To extract as much informatioon as possible from the pictures it is necessary to measure them, and analyse the results.