Delta electrons

Delta electrons

Energetic electrons ejected from atoms in matter by the passage of ionizing particles. In every primary ionizing collision between a charged particle and an atom, one or more electrons are ejected. Delta electrons are, by definition, that small fraction of these emitted electrons having energies which are large compared to the ionization potential. The name is a traditional one—comparable to alpha particles, for energetic helium nuclei, and beta particles, for energetic electrons emitted in radioactive decays. See Alpha particles, Beta particles, Ionization

Delta electrons are responsible for the “hairy” appearance of charged particle tracks when they are observed in cloud chambers or in photographic emulsions. In studies of super-high-energy particles in cosmic radiation and from the highest-energy accelerators, observation of the number of delta electrons per centimeter of path length has been shown to lead to a reliable determination of the charge of the energetic particle.