The Radioactive Decay of Slow Positive and Negative Mesons

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Abstract
Cosmic ray mesons, after passage through a cloud chamber situated in a magnetic field, were slowed down and allowed to decay in specimens of carbon, stainless steel, brass, water and beryllium. By means of delayed coincidence circuits the cloud chamber was actuated only when a meson decayed in the specimen. In stainless steel and in brass, only positive mesons decay; in carbon, water, and beryllium both positive and negative mesons decay in such numbers as to indicate that few, if any, of the negative mesons undergo nuclear capture in these substances. It is shown that the masses of the decaying mesons are approximately two hundred times the mass of an electron.

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