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SYHB: Hans-Bethe Symposium

SYHB 1: Hans-Bethe Symposium I

SYHB 1.4: Invited Talk

Monday, March 13, 2006, 15:25–15:55, HV

Theory of the Passage of Energetic Charged Particles through Matter: An Early Application of Quantum Mechanics — •E. Merzbacher — Kenan Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

With his doctoral training complete in 1928, Hans Bethe was poised to apply the new quantum mechanics to atoms, solids, nuclei and particles. I will focus on Bethe’s influential and enduring theoretical study of atomic collisions, initially formulated in his 1930 article in Annalen der Physik, and reviewed in his 1933 review in the Handbuch der Physik. I will attempt to place this paper in its historical context, summarizing earlier work on atomic cross sections and stopping power, and briefly describing the impact Bethe’s theories have had on our understanding of the interaction of charged particle beams with target atoms.