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104-584: A PASER (an acronym from Particle Acceleration by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is a device that accelerates a coherent beam of electrons . This process was demonstrated for the first time in 2006 at the Brookhaven National Lab by a team of physicists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Relativistic electrons from a conventional particle accelerator pass through a vibrationally excited carbon dioxide medium in which

208-404: A de Broglie wave in the manner of light . That is, under the appropriate conditions, electrons and other matter would show properties of either particles or waves. The corpuscular properties of a particle are demonstrated when it is shown to have a localized position in space along its trajectory at any given moment. The wave-like nature of light is displayed, for example, when a beam of light

312-411: A beam of cathode rays through a vacuum tube can be controlled by passing it through a metal screen of wires (a grid ) between cathode and anode, to which a small negative voltage is applied. The electric field of the wires deflects some of the electrons, preventing them from reaching the anode. The amount of current that gets through to the anode depends on the voltage on the grid. Thus, a small voltage on

416-648: A charged droplet of oil from falling as a result of gravity. This device could measure the electric charge from as few as 1–150 ions with an error margin of less than 0.3%. Comparable experiments had been done earlier by Thomson's team, using clouds of charged water droplets generated by electrolysis, and in 1911 by Abram Ioffe , who independently obtained the same result as Millikan using charged microparticles of metals, then published his results in 1913. However, oil drops were more stable than water drops because of their slower evaporation rate, and thus more suited to precise experimentation over longer periods of time. Around

520-449: A dark space just in front of the cathode, where there was no luminescence. This came to be called the "cathode dark space", "Faraday dark space" or "Crookes dark space". Crookes found that as he pumped more air out of the tubes, the Faraday dark space spread down the tube from the cathode toward the anode, until the tube was totally dark. But at the anode (positive) end of the tube, the glass of

624-595: A few specialized gas discharge tubes such as krytrons . In 1906, Lee De Forest found that a small voltage on a grid of metal wires between the cathode and anode could control a current in a beam of cathode rays passing through a vacuum tube. His invention, called the triode , was the first device that could amplify electric signals, and revolutionized electrical technology, creating the new field of electronics . Vacuum tubes made radio and television broadcasting possible, as well as radar , talking movies, audio recording, and long-distance telephone service, and were

728-431: A focused beam of electrons deflected by electric or magnetic fields to render an image on a screen. Cathode rays are so named because they are emitted by the negative electrode, or cathode , in a vacuum tube. To release electrons into the tube, they first must be detached from the atoms of the cathode. In the early experimental cold cathode vacuum tubes in which cathode rays were discovered, called Crookes tubes , this

832-410: A fourth state of matter in which the mean free path of the particles is so long that collisions may be ignored. In 1883, not yet well-known German physicist Heinrich Hertz tried to prove that cathode rays are electrically neutral and got what he interpreted as a confident absence of deflection in electrostatic, as opposed to magnetic, field. However, as J. J. Thomson explained in 1897, Hertz placed

936-494: A friction that slows the electron. This force is caused by a back-reaction of the electron's own field upon itself. Photons mediate electromagnetic interactions between particles in quantum electrodynamics . An isolated electron at a constant velocity cannot emit or absorb a real photon; doing so would violate conservation of energy and momentum . Instead, virtual photons can transfer momentum between two charged particles. This exchange of virtual photons, for example, generates

1040-486: A longer distance through low pressure air than through atmospheric pressure air. In 1838, Michael Faraday applied a high voltage between two metal electrodes at either end of a glass tube that had been partially evacuated of air, and noticed a strange light arc with its beginning at the cathode (negative electrode) and its end at the anode (positive electrode). In 1857, German physicist and glassblower Heinrich Geissler sucked even more air out with an improved pump, to

1144-460: A model of the electron – the Dirac equation , consistent with relativity theory, by applying relativistic and symmetry considerations to the hamiltonian formulation of the quantum mechanics of the electro-magnetic field. In order to resolve some problems within his relativistic equation, Dirac developed in 1930 a model of the vacuum as an infinite sea of particles with negative energy, later dubbed

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1248-404: A modern neon light ), caused when the electrons struck gas atoms, exciting their orbital electrons to higher energy levels. The electrons released this energy as light. This process is called fluorescence. By the 1870s, British physicist William Crookes and others were able to evacuate tubes to a lower pressure, below 10 atm. These were called Crookes tubes. Faraday had been the first to notice

1352-456: A particle with a positive charge, such as the proton, and a repulsive force on a particle with a negative charge. The strength of this force in nonrelativistic approximation is determined by Coulomb's inverse square law . When an electron is in motion, it generates a magnetic field . The Ampère–Maxwell law relates the magnetic field to the mass motion of electrons (the current ) with respect to an observer. This property of induction supplies

1456-667: A particle. These conflicting properties caused disruptions when trying to classify it as a wave or particle. Crookes insisted it was a particle, while Hertz maintained it was a wave. The debate was resolved when an electric field was used to deflect the rays by J. J. Thomson. This was evidence that the beams were composed of particles because scientists knew it was impossible to deflect electromagnetic waves with an electric field. These can also create mechanical effects, fluorescence, etc. Louis de Broglie later (1924) suggested in his doctoral dissertation that electrons are like photons and can act as waves . The wave-like behaviour of cathode rays

1560-458: A pressure of around 10 atm and found that, instead of an arc, a glow filled the tube. The voltage applied between the two electrodes of the tubes, generated by an induction coil , was anywhere between a few kilovolts and 100 kV. These were called Geissler tubes , similar to today's neon signs . The explanation of these effects was that the high voltage accelerated free electrons and electrically charged atoms ( ions ) naturally present in

1664-596: A single electron. This prohibition against more than one electron occupying the same quantum energy state became known as the Pauli exclusion principle . The physical mechanism to explain the fourth parameter, which had two distinct possible values, was provided by the Dutch physicists Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck . In 1925, they suggested that an electron, in addition to the angular momentum of its orbit, possesses an intrinsic angular momentum and magnetic dipole moment . This

1768-482: A solution that determined the location of an electron over time, this wave equation also could be used to predict the probability of finding an electron near a position, especially a position near where the electron was bound in space, for which the electron wave equations did not change in time. This approach led to a second formulation of quantum mechanics (the first by Heisenberg in 1925), and solutions of Schrödinger's equation, like Heisenberg's, provided derivations of

1872-437: A surplus of the charge carrier, and which situation was a deficit. Between 1838 and 1851, British natural philosopher Richard Laming developed the idea that an atom is composed of a core of matter surrounded by subatomic particles that had unit electric charges . Beginning in 1846, German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber theorized that electricity was composed of positively and negatively charged fluids, and their interaction

1976-509: A surrounding electric field ; if that electron is moving relative to an observer, the observer will observe it to generate a magnetic field . Electromagnetic fields produced from other sources will affect the motion of an electron according to the Lorentz force law . Electrons radiate or absorb energy in the form of photons when they are accelerated. Laboratory instruments are capable of trapping individual electrons as well as electron plasma by

2080-407: Is a challenging problem of modern theoretical physics. The admission of the hypothesis of a finite radius of the electron is incompatible to the premises of the theory of relativity. On the other hand, a point-like electron (zero radius) generates serious mathematical difficulties due to the self-energy of the electron tending to infinity. Observation of a single electron in a Penning trap suggests

2184-463: Is a combination of the words electr ic and i on . The suffix - on which is now used to designate other subatomic particles, such as a proton or neutron, is in turn derived from electron. While studying electrical conductivity in rarefied gases in 1859, the German physicist Julius Plücker observed the radiation emitted from the cathode caused phosphorescent light to appear on the tube wall near

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2288-488: Is actually smaller than its true value, and the charge decreases with increasing distance from the electron. This polarization was confirmed experimentally in 1997 using the Japanese TRISTAN particle accelerator. Virtual particles cause a comparable shielding effect for the mass of the electron. The interaction with virtual particles also explains the small (about 0.1%) deviation of the intrinsic magnetic moment of

2392-585: Is analogous to the rotation of the Earth on its axis as it orbits the Sun. The intrinsic angular momentum became known as spin , and explained the previously mysterious splitting of spectral lines observed with a high-resolution spectrograph ; this phenomenon is known as fine structure splitting. In his 1924 dissertation Recherches sur la théorie des quanta (Research on Quantum Theory), French physicist Louis de Broglie hypothesized that all matter can be represented as

2496-472: Is approximately 9.109 × 10  kg , or 5.489 × 10   Da . Due to mass–energy equivalence , this corresponds to a rest energy of 0.511 MeV (8.19 × 10  J) . The ratio between the mass of a proton and that of an electron is about 1836. Astronomical measurements show that the proton-to-electron mass ratio has held the same value, as is predicted by the Standard Model, for at least half

2600-450: Is in existence, the Coulomb force from the ambient electric field surrounding an electron causes a created positron to be attracted to the original electron, while a created electron experiences a repulsion. This causes what is called vacuum polarization . In effect, the vacuum behaves like a medium having a dielectric permittivity more than unity . Thus the effective charge of an electron

2704-405: Is made of a thin wire filament which is heated by a separate electric current passing through it. The increased random heat motion of the filament knocks electrons out of the surface of the filament, into the evacuated space of the tube. Since the electrons have a negative charge, they are repelled by the negative cathode and attracted to the positive anode. They travel in parallel lines through

2808-556: Is one of humanity's earliest recorded experiences with electricity . In his 1600 treatise De Magnete , the English scientist William Gilbert coined the Neo-Latin term electrica , to refer to those substances with property similar to that of amber which attract small objects after being rubbed. Both electric and electricity are derived from the Latin ēlectrum (also the root of

2912-407: Is passed through parallel slits thereby creating interference patterns. In 1927, George Paget Thomson and Alexander Reid discovered the interference effect was produced when a beam of electrons was passed through thin celluloid foils and later metal films, and by American physicists Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer by the reflection of electrons from a crystal of nickel . Alexander Reid, who

3016-722: Is the same medium used in a carbon dioxide laser . This medium resonantly amplifies light with a wavelength near 10.6 or 9.4 micrometers , corresponding to a frequency of approximately 30 terahertz . In order to be accelerated, incident electrons must be microbunched at this frequency. An appropriately bunched electron beam strikes excited carbon dioxide molecules resonantly in order to efficiently stimulate energy emission. Electrons Electrons play an essential role in numerous physical phenomena, such as electricity , magnetism , chemistry , and thermal conductivity ; they also participate in gravitational , electromagnetic , and weak interactions . Since an electron has charge, it has

3120-461: The Dirac sea . This led him to predict the existence of a positron, the antimatter counterpart of the electron. This particle was discovered in 1932 by Carl Anderson , who proposed calling standard electrons negatrons and using electron as a generic term to describe both the positively and negatively charged variants. In 1947, Willis Lamb , working in collaboration with graduate student Robert Retherford , found that certain quantum states of

3224-454: The Lamb shift observed in spectral lines . The Compton Wavelength shows that near elementary particles such as the electron, the uncertainty of the energy allows for the creation of virtual particles near the electron. This wavelength explains the "static" of virtual particles around elementary particles at a close distance. An electron generates an electric field that exerts an attractive force on

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3328-469: The Standard Model of particle physics. Individual electrons can now be easily confined in ultra small ( L = 20 nm , W = 20 nm ) CMOS transistors operated at cryogenic temperature over a range of −269 °C (4  K ) to about −258 °C (15  K ). The electron wavefunction spreads in a semiconductor lattice and negligibly interacts with the valence band electrons, so it can be treated in

3432-416: The absolute value of this function is squared , it gives the probability that a particle will be observed near a location—a probability density . Electrons are identical particles because they cannot be distinguished from each other by their intrinsic physical properties. In quantum mechanics, this means that a pair of interacting electrons must be able to swap positions without an observable change to

3536-414: The age of the universe . Electrons have an electric charge of −1.602 176 634 × 10 coulombs , which is used as a standard unit of charge for subatomic particles, and is also called the elementary charge . Within the limits of experimental accuracy, the electron charge is identical to the charge of a proton, but with the opposite sign. The electron is commonly symbolized by e , and

3640-722: The alloy of the same name ), which came from the Greek word for amber, ἤλεκτρον ( ēlektron ). In the early 1700s, French chemist Charles François du Fay found that if a charged gold-leaf is repulsed by glass rubbed with silk, then the same charged gold-leaf is attracted by amber rubbed with wool. From this and other results of similar types of experiments, du Fay concluded that electricity consists of two electrical fluids , vitreous fluid from glass rubbed with silk and resinous fluid from amber rubbed with wool. These two fluids can neutralize each other when combined. American scientist Ebenezer Kinnersley later also independently reached

3744-405: The double-slit experiment . The wave-like nature of the electron allows it to pass through two parallel slits simultaneously, rather than just one slit as would be the case for a classical particle. In quantum mechanics, the wave-like property of one particle can be described mathematically as a complex -valued function, the wave function , commonly denoted by the Greek letter psi ( ψ ). When

3848-462: The e / m ratio but did not take the step of interpreting their results as showing a new particle, while J. J. Thomson would subsequently in 1899 give estimates for the electron charge and mass as well: e  ~  6.8 × 10   esu and m  ~  3 × 10  g The name "electron" was adopted for these particles by the scientific community, mainly due to the advocation by G. F. FitzGerald , J. Larmor , and H. A. Lorentz . The term

3952-414: The muon and the tau , which are identical to the electron in charge, spin and interactions , but are more massive. Leptons differ from the other basic constituent of matter, the quarks , by their lack of strong interaction . All members of the lepton group are fermions because they all have half-odd integer spin; the electron has spin ⁠ 1 / 2 ⁠ . The invariant mass of an electron

4056-459: The spectral lines of the hydrogen atom. However, Bohr's model failed to account for the relative intensities of the spectral lines and it was unsuccessful in explaining the spectra of more complex atoms. Chemical bonds between atoms were explained by Gilbert Newton Lewis , who in 1916 proposed that a covalent bond between two atoms is maintained by a pair of electrons shared between them. Later, in 1927, Walter Heitler and Fritz London gave

4160-399: The spinon , the orbiton and the holon (or chargon). The electron can always be theoretically considered as a bound state of the three, with the spinon carrying the spin of the electron, the orbiton carrying the orbital degree of freedom and the chargon carrying the charge, but in certain conditions they can behave as independent quasiparticles . The issue of the radius of the electron

4264-599: The 1870s, the English chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes developed the first cathode-ray tube to have a high vacuum inside. He then showed in 1874 that the cathode rays can turn a small paddle wheel when placed in their path. Therefore, he concluded that the rays carried momentum. Furthermore, by applying a magnetic field, he was able to deflect the rays, thereby demonstrating that the beam behaved as though it were negatively charged. In 1879, he proposed that these properties could be explained by regarding cathode rays as composed of negatively charged gaseous molecules in

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4368-436: The 19th century, many historic experiments were done with Crookes tubes to determine what cathode rays were. There were two theories. Crookes and Arthur Schuster believed they were particles of "radiant matter," that is, electrically charged atoms. German scientists Eilhard Wiedemann, Heinrich Hertz and Goldstein believed they were "aether waves", some new form of electromagnetic radiation , and were separate from what carried

4472-472: The Coulomb force. Energy emission can occur when a moving electron is deflected by a charged particle, such as a proton. The deceleration of the electron results in the emission of Bremsstrahlung radiation. An inelastic collision between a photon (light) and a solitary (free) electron is called Compton scattering . This collision results in a transfer of momentum and energy between the particles, which modifies

4576-487: The air of the tube. At low pressure, there was enough space between the gas atoms that the electrons could accelerate to high enough speeds that when they struck an atom they knocked electrons off of it, creating more positive ions and free electrons, which went on to create more ions and electrons in a chain reaction, known as a glow discharge . The positive ions were attracted to the cathode and when they struck it knocked more electrons out of it, which were attracted toward

4680-426: The anode. Thus the ionized air was electrically conductive and an electric current flowed through the tube. Geissler tubes had enough air in them that the electrons could only travel a tiny distance before colliding with an atom. The electrons in these tubes moved in a slow diffusion process, never gaining much speed, so these tubes didn't produce cathode rays. Instead, they produced a colorful glow discharge (as in

4784-420: The atmosphere. The antiparticle of the electron is called the positron ; it is identical to the electron, except that it carries electrical charge of the opposite sign. When an electron collides with a positron , both particles can be annihilated , producing gamma ray photons . The ancient Greeks noticed that amber attracted small objects when rubbed with fur. Along with lightning , this phenomenon

4888-480: The beginning of the twentieth century, it was found that under certain conditions a fast-moving charged particle caused a condensation of supersaturated water vapor along its path. In 1911, Charles Wilson used this principle to devise his cloud chamber so he could photograph the tracks of charged particles, such as fast-moving electrons. By 1914, experiments by physicists Ernest Rutherford , Henry Moseley , James Franck and Gustav Hertz had largely established

4992-400: The cathode could cast a shadow on the glowing wall, and realized that something must be traveling in straight lines from the cathode. After the electrons strike the back of the tube they make their way to the anode, then travel through the anode wire through the power supply and back through the cathode wire to the cathode, so cathode rays carry electric current through the tube. The current in

5096-402: The cathode; and the region of the phosphorescent light could be moved by application of a magnetic field. In 1869, Plücker's student Johann Wilhelm Hittorf found that a solid body placed in between the cathode and the phosphorescence would cast a shadow upon the phosphorescent region of the tube. Hittorf inferred that there are straight rays emitted from the cathode and that the phosphorescence

5200-549: The charge carriers were much heavier hydrogen or nitrogen atoms. Schuster's estimates would subsequently turn out to be largely correct. In 1892 Hendrik Lorentz suggested that the mass of these particles (electrons) could be a consequence of their electric charge. While studying naturally fluorescing minerals in 1896, the French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered that they emitted radiation without any exposure to an external energy source. These radioactive materials became

5304-588: The concept of an indivisible quantity of electric charge to explain the chemical properties of atoms. Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney named this charge "electron" in 1891, and J. J. Thomson and his team of British physicists identified it as a particle in 1897 during the cathode-ray tube experiment . Electrons participate in nuclear reactions , such as nucleosynthesis in stars , where they are known as beta particles . Electrons can be created through beta decay of radioactive isotopes and in high-energy collisions, for instance, when cosmic rays enter

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5408-430: The deflecting electrodes in a highly-conductive area of the tube, resulting in a strong screening effect close to their surface. The German-born British physicist Arthur Schuster expanded upon Crookes's experiments by placing metal plates parallel to the cathode rays and applying an electric potential between the plates. The field deflected the rays toward the positively charged plate, providing further evidence that

5512-427: The effects of quantum mechanics ; in reality, the so-called classical electron radius has little to do with the true fundamental structure of the electron. There are elementary particles that spontaneously decay into less massive particles. An example is the muon , with a mean lifetime of 2.2 × 10  seconds, which decays into an electron, a muon neutrino and an electron antineutrino . The electron, on

5616-587: The electric current through the tube. The debate was resolved in 1897 when J. J. Thomson measured the mass of cathode rays, showing they were made of particles, but were around 1800 times lighter than the lightest atom, hydrogen . Therefore, they were not atoms, but a new particle, the first subatomic particle to be discovered, which he originally called " corpuscle " but was later named electron , after particles postulated by George Johnstone Stoney in 1874. He also showed they were identical with particles given off by photoelectric and radioactive materials. It

5720-450: The electron from the Bohr magneton (the anomalous magnetic moment ). The extraordinarily precise agreement of this predicted difference with the experimentally determined value is viewed as one of the great achievements of quantum electrodynamics . The apparent paradox in classical physics of a point particle electron having intrinsic angular momentum and magnetic moment can be explained by

5824-560: The electron has an intrinsic magnetic moment along its spin axis. It is approximately equal to one Bohr magneton , which is a physical constant that is equal to 9.274 010 0657 (29) × 10  J⋅T . The orientation of the spin with respect to the momentum of the electron defines the property of elementary particles known as helicity . The electron has no known substructure . Nevertheless, in condensed matter physics , spin–charge separation can occur in some materials. In such cases, electrons 'split' into three independent particles,

5928-464: The electrons undergo millions of collisions with excited carbon dioxide molecules and are accelerated in a coherent fashion. No heat is generated in this quantum energy transfer, thus all the energy transferred to the electrons is used in accelerating the electrons. The electron beam created from this process may result in electrons that are highly collimated in velocity in comparison to other acceleration methods. The vibrationally excited carbon dioxide

6032-415: The empty tube. The voltage applied between the electrodes accelerates these low mass particles to high velocities. Cathode rays are invisible, but their presence was first detected in these Crookes tubes when they struck the glass wall of the tube, exciting the atoms of the glass coating and causing them to emit light, a glow called fluorescence . Researchers noticed that objects placed in the tube in front of

6136-421: The energy as light, causing the glass to fluoresce , usually a greenish or bluish color. Later researchers painted the inside back wall with fluorescent chemicals such as zinc sulfide , to make the glow more visible. Cathode rays themselves are invisible, but this accidental fluorescence allowed researchers to notice that objects in the tube in front of the cathode, such as the anode, cast sharp-edged shadows on

6240-456: The energy states of an electron in a hydrogen atom that were equivalent to those that had been derived first by Bohr in 1913, and that were known to reproduce the hydrogen spectrum. Once spin and the interaction between multiple electrons were describable, quantum mechanics made it possible to predict the configuration of electrons in atoms with atomic numbers greater than hydrogen. In 1928, building on Wolfgang Pauli's work, Paul Dirac produced

6344-448: The first high-energy particle collider was ADONE , which began operations in 1968. This device accelerated electrons and positrons in opposite directions, effectively doubling the energy of their collision when compared to striking a static target with an electron. The Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) at CERN , which was operational from 1989 to 2000, achieved collision energies of 209 GeV and made important measurements for

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6448-406: The formation of virtual photons in the electric field generated by the electron. These photons can heuristically be thought of as causing the electron to shift about in a jittery fashion (known as zitterbewegung ), which results in a net circular motion with precession . This motion produces both the spin and the magnetic moment of the electron. In atoms, this creation of virtual photons explains

6552-410: The foundation of consumer electronic devices until the 1960s, when the transistor brought the era of vacuum tubes to a close. Cathode rays are now usually called electron beams. The technology of manipulating electron beams pioneered in these early tubes was applied practically in the design of vacuum tubes, particularly in the invention of the cathode-ray tube (CRT) by Ferdinand Braun in 1897, which

6656-559: The full explanation of the electron-pair formation and chemical bonding in terms of quantum mechanics . In 1919, the American chemist Irving Langmuir elaborated on the Lewis's static model of the atom and suggested that all electrons were distributed in successive "concentric (nearly) spherical shells, all of equal thickness". In turn, he divided the shells into a number of cells each of which contained one pair of electrons. With this model Langmuir

6760-415: The glowing back wall. In 1869, German physicist Johann Hittorf was first to realize that something must be traveling in straight lines from the cathode to cast the shadows. Eugen Goldstein named them cathode rays (German Kathodenstrahlen ). At this time, atoms were the smallest particles known, and were believed to be indivisible. What carried electric currents was a mystery. During the last quarter of

6864-451: The grid can be made to control a much larger voltage on the anode. This is the principle used in vacuum tubes to amplify electrical signals. The triode vacuum tube developed between 1907 and 1914 was the first electronic device that could amplify, and is still used in some applications such as radio transmitters . High speed beams of cathode rays can also be steered and manipulated by electric fields created by additional metal plates in

6968-421: The hydrogen atom, which should have the same energy, were shifted in relation to each other; the difference came to be called the Lamb shift . About the same time, Polykarp Kusch , working with Henry M. Foley , discovered the magnetic moment of the electron is slightly larger than predicted by Dirac's theory. This small difference was later called anomalous magnetic dipole moment of the electron. This difference

7072-435: The light and free electrons is called Thomson scattering or linear Thomson scattering. Cathode ray Cathode rays or electron beams ( e-beam ) are streams of electrons observed in discharge tubes . If an evacuated glass tube is equipped with two electrodes and a voltage is applied, glass behind the positive electrode is observed to glow, due to electrons emitted from the cathode (the electrode connected to

7176-489: The magnetic field and the electron velocity. This centripetal force causes the electron to follow a helical trajectory through the field at a radius called the gyroradius . The acceleration from this curving motion induces the electron to radiate energy in the form of synchrotron radiation. The energy emission in turn causes a recoil of the electron, known as the Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac Force , which creates

7280-462: The magnetic field that drives an electric motor . The electromagnetic field of an arbitrary moving charged particle is expressed by the Liénard–Wiechert potentials , which are valid even when the particle's speed is close to that of light ( relativistic ). When an electron is moving through a magnetic field, it is subject to the Lorentz force that acts perpendicularly to the plane defined by

7384-491: The negative terminal of the voltage supply). They were first observed in 1859 by German physicist Julius Plücker and Johann Wilhelm Hittorf , and were named in 1876 by Eugen Goldstein Kathodenstrahlen , or cathode rays. In 1897, British physicist J. J. Thomson showed that cathode rays were composed of a previously unknown negatively charged particle, which was later named the electron . Cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) use

7488-426: The negatively charged particles produced by radioactive materials, by heated materials and by illuminated materials were universal. Thomson measured m / e for cathode ray "corpuscles", and made good estimates of the charge e , leading to value for the mass m , finding a value 1400 times less massive than the least massive ion known: hydrogen. In the same year Emil Wiechert and Walter Kaufmann also calculated

7592-430: The other hand, is thought to be stable on theoretical grounds: the electron is the least massive particle with non-zero electric charge, so its decay would violate charge conservation . The experimental lower bound for the electron's mean lifetime is 6.6 × 10 years, at a 90% confidence level . As with all particles, electrons can act as waves. This is called the wave–particle duality and can be demonstrated using

7696-551: The photon, have symmetric wave functions instead. In the case of antisymmetry, solutions of the wave equation for interacting electrons result in a zero probability that each pair will occupy the same location or state. This is responsible for the Pauli exclusion principle , which precludes any two electrons from occupying the same quantum state. This principle explains many of the properties of electrons. For example, it causes groups of bound electrons to occupy different orbitals in an atom, rather than all overlapping each other in

7800-456: The positive protons within atomic nuclei and the negative electrons without allows the composition of the two known as atoms . Ionization or differences in the proportions of negative electrons versus positive nuclei changes the binding energy of an atomic system. The exchange or sharing of the electrons between two or more atoms is the main cause of chemical bonding . In 1838, British natural philosopher Richard Laming first hypothesized

7904-452: The positron is symbolized by e . The electron has an intrinsic angular momentum or spin of ⁠ ħ / 2 ⁠ . This property is usually stated by referring to the electron as a spin-1/2 particle. For such particles the spin magnitude is ⁠ ħ / 2 ⁠ , while the result of the measurement of a projection of the spin on any axis can only be ± ⁠ ħ / 2 ⁠ . In addition to spin,

8008-403: The rays carried negative charge. By measuring the amount of deflection for a given electric and magnetic field , in 1890 Schuster was able to estimate the charge-to-mass ratio of the ray components. However, this produced a value that was more than a thousand times greater than what was expected, so little credence was given to his calculations at the time. This is because it was assumed that

8112-450: The same conclusion. A decade later Benjamin Franklin proposed that electricity was not from different types of electrical fluid, but a single electrical fluid showing an excess (+) or deficit (−). He gave them the modern charge nomenclature of positive and negative respectively. Franklin thought of the charge carrier as being positive, but he did not correctly identify which situation was

8216-423: The same orbit. In a simplified picture, which often tends to give the wrong idea but may serve to illustrate some aspects, every photon spends some time as a combination of a virtual electron plus its antiparticle, the virtual positron, which rapidly annihilate each other shortly thereafter. The combination of the energy variation needed to create these particles, and the time during which they exist, fall under

8320-489: The single particle formalism, by replacing its mass with the effective mass tensor . In the Standard Model of particle physics, electrons belong to the group of subatomic particles called leptons , which are believed to be fundamental or elementary particles . Electrons have the lowest mass of any charged lepton (or electrically charged particle of any type) and belong to the first generation of fundamental particles. The second and third generation contain charged leptons,

8424-435: The state of the system. The wave function of fermions, including electrons, is antisymmetric, meaning that it changes sign when two electrons are swapped; that is, ψ ( r 1 , r 2 ) = − ψ ( r 2 , r 1 ) , where the variables r 1 and r 2 correspond to the first and second electrons, respectively. Since the absolute value is not changed by a sign swap, this corresponds to equal probabilities. Bosons , such as

8528-484: The structure of an atom as a dense nucleus of positive charge surrounded by lower-mass electrons. In 1913, Danish physicist Niels Bohr postulated that electrons resided in quantized energy states, with their energies determined by the angular momentum of the electron's orbit about the nucleus. The electrons could move between those states, or orbits, by the emission or absorption of photons of specific frequencies. By means of these quantized orbits, he accurately explained

8632-498: The subject of much interest by scientists, including the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford who discovered they emitted particles. He designated these particles alpha and beta , on the basis of their ability to penetrate matter. In 1900, Becquerel showed that the beta rays emitted by radium could be deflected by an electric field, and that their mass-to-charge ratio was the same as for cathode rays. This evidence strengthened

8736-423: The term electrolion in 1881. Ten years later, he switched to electron to describe these elementary charges, writing in 1894: "... an estimate was made of the actual amount of this most remarkable fundamental unit of electricity, for which I have since ventured to suggest the name electron ". A 1906 proposal to change to electrion failed because Hendrik Lorentz preferred to keep electron . The word electron

8840-516: The threshold of detectability expressed by the Heisenberg uncertainty relation , Δ E  · Δ t  ≥  ħ . In effect, the energy needed to create these virtual particles, Δ E , can be "borrowed" from the vacuum for a period of time, Δ t , so that their product is no more than the reduced Planck constant , ħ ≈ 6.6 × 10  eV·s . Thus, for a virtual electron, Δ t is at most 1.3 × 10  s . While an electron–positron virtual pair

8944-460: The tube by a process called thermionic emission . The first true electronic vacuum tubes, invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming , used this hot cathode technique, and they superseded Crookes tubes. These tubes didn't need gas in them to work, so they were evacuated to a lower pressure, around 10 atm (10 Pa). The ionization method of creating cathode rays used in Crookes tubes is today only used in

9048-470: The tube itself began to glow. What was happening was that as more air was pumped from the tube, the electrons knocked out of the cathode when positive ions struck it could travel farther, on average, before they struck a gas atom. By the time the tube was dark, most of the electrons could travel in straight lines from the cathode to the anode end of the tube without a collision. With no obstructions, these low mass particles were accelerated to high velocities by

9152-452: The tube to which voltage is applied, or magnetic fields created by coils of wire ( electromagnets ). These are used in cathode-ray tubes , found in televisions and computer monitors, and in electron microscopes . After the invention of the vacuum pump in 1654 by Otto von Guericke , physicists began to experiment with passing high voltage electricity through rarefied air . In 1705, it was noted that electrostatic generator sparks travel

9256-426: The upper limit of the particle's radius to be 10  meters. The upper bound of the electron radius of 10  meters can be derived using the uncertainty relation in energy. There is also a physical constant called the " classical electron radius ", with the much larger value of 2.8179 × 10  m , greater than the radius of the proton. However, the terminology comes from a simplistic calculation that ignores

9360-624: The use of electromagnetic fields. Special telescopes can detect electron plasma in outer space. Electrons are involved in many applications, such as tribology or frictional charging, electrolysis, electrochemistry, battery technologies, electronics , welding , cathode-ray tubes , photoelectricity, photovoltaic solar panels, electron microscopes , radiation therapy , lasers , gaseous ionization detectors , and particle accelerators . Interactions involving electrons with other subatomic particles are of interest in fields such as chemistry and nuclear physics . The Coulomb force interaction between

9464-482: The view that electrons existed as components of atoms. In 1897, the British physicist J. J. Thomson , with his colleagues John S. Townsend and H. A. Wilson , performed experiments indicating that cathode rays really were unique particles, rather than waves, atoms or molecules as was believed earlier. By 1899 he showed that their charge-to-mass ratio, e / m , was independent of cathode material. He further showed that

9568-432: The voltage between the electrodes. These were the cathode rays. When they reached the anode end of the tube, they were traveling so fast that, although they were attracted to it, they often flew past the anode and struck the back wall of the tube. When they struck atoms in the glass wall, they excited their orbital electrons to higher energy levels . When the electrons returned to their original energy level, they released

9672-468: The wavelength of the photon by an amount called the Compton shift . The maximum magnitude of this wavelength shift is h / m e c , which is known as the Compton wavelength . For an electron, it has a value of 2.43 × 10  m . When the wavelength of the light is long (for instance, the wavelength of the visible light is 0.4–0.7 μm) the wavelength shift becomes negligible. Such interaction between

9776-551: Was Thomson's graduate student, performed the first experiments but he died soon after in a motorcycle accident and is rarely mentioned. De Broglie's prediction of a wave nature for electrons led Erwin Schrödinger to postulate a wave equation for electrons moving under the influence of the nucleus in the atom. In 1926, this equation, the Schrödinger equation , successfully described how electron waves propagated. Rather than yielding

9880-416: Was able to qualitatively explain the chemical properties of all elements in the periodic table, which were known to largely repeat themselves according to the periodic law . In 1924, Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli observed that the shell-like structure of the atom could be explained by a set of four parameters that defined every quantum energy state, as long as each state was occupied by no more than

9984-734: Was caused by the rays striking the tube walls. Furthermore, he also discovered that these rays are deflected by magnets just like lines of current. In 1876, the German physicist Eugen Goldstein showed that the rays were emitted perpendicular to the cathode surface, which distinguished between the rays that were emitted from the cathode and the incandescent light. Goldstein dubbed the rays cathode rays . Decades of experimental and theoretical research involving cathode rays were important in J. J. Thomson 's eventual discovery of electrons. Goldstein also experimented with double cathodes and hypothesized that one ray may repulse another, although he didn't believe that any particles might be involved. During

10088-404: Was done by using a high electrical potential of thousands of volts between the anode and the cathode to ionize the residual gas atoms in the tube. The positive ions were accelerated by the electric field toward the cathode, and when they collided with it they knocked electrons out of its surface; these were the cathode rays. Modern vacuum tubes use thermionic emission , in which the cathode

10192-672: Was governed by the inverse square law . After studying the phenomenon of electrolysis in 1874, Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney suggested that there existed a "single definite quantity of electricity", the charge of a monovalent ion . He was able to estimate the value of this elementary charge e by means of Faraday's laws of electrolysis . However, Stoney believed these charges were permanently attached to atoms and could not be removed. In 1881, German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz argued that both positive and negative charges were divided into elementary parts, each of which "behaves like atoms of electricity". Stoney initially coined

10296-426: Was later explained by the theory of quantum electrodynamics , developed by Sin-Itiro Tomonaga , Julian Schwinger and Richard Feynman in the late 1940s. With the development of the particle accelerator during the first half of the twentieth century, physicists began to delve deeper into the properties of subatomic particles . The first successful attempt to accelerate electrons using electromagnetic induction

10400-415: Was made in 1942 by Donald Kerst . His initial betatron reached energies of 2.3 MeV, while subsequent betatrons achieved 300 MeV. In 1947, synchrotron radiation was discovered with a 70 MeV electron synchrotron at General Electric . This radiation was caused by the acceleration of electrons through a magnetic field as they moved near the speed of light. With a beam energy of 1.5 GeV,

10504-413: Was originally coined by George Johnstone Stoney in 1891 as a tentative name for the basic unit of electrical charge (which had then yet to be discovered). The electron's charge was more carefully measured by the American physicists Robert Millikan and Harvey Fletcher in their oil-drop experiment of 1909, the results of which were published in 1911. This experiment used an electric field to prevent

10608-573: Was quickly recognized that they are the particles that carry electric currents in metal wires, and carry the negative electric charge of the atom. Thomson was given the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. Philipp Lenard also contributed a great deal to cathode-ray theory, winning the Nobel Prize in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and their properties. The gas ionization (or cold cathode ) method of producing cathode rays used in Crookes tubes

10712-442: Was unreliable, because it depended on the pressure of the residual air in the tube. Over time, the air was absorbed by the walls of the tube, and it stopped working. A more reliable and controllable method of producing cathode rays was investigated by Hittorf and Goldstein, and rediscovered by Thomas Edison in 1880. A cathode made of a wire filament heated red hot by a separate current passing through it would release electrons into

10816-402: Was used in television sets and oscilloscopes . Today, electron beams are employed in sophisticated devices such as electron microscopes, electron beam lithography and particle accelerators . Like a wave, cathode rays travel in straight lines, and produce a shadow when obstructed by objects. Ernest Rutherford demonstrated that rays could pass through thin metal foils, behavior expected of

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