A Test for Polarization in a Beam of Electrons by Scattering

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Abstract
This paper contains a final report on the researches commenced by Cox, McIlwraith, and Kurrelmeyer, and reported by them in preliminary fashion. High speed beta-particles from radium impinge on lead targets and are twice scattered at right angles. The doubly scattered electrons are counted by a point-discharge counter, the number counted at various azimuthal angles being studied, as the radium and upper target are rotated as a unit with respect to the counter and lower target. Experimental refinements have increased the total number of countable electrons and have eliminated the counts due to gamma-rays, which were very troublesome in the earlier experiments. Counts taken at four azimuthal angles separated by ninety degrees show no effect of the kind suspected by Cox, McIlwraith, and Kurrelmeyer, nor any effect of the kind which occurs when x-rays are twice scattered at right angles. More than forty-five thousand electrons were counted. The experimental error is less than one percent. It is concluded that high speed beta-rays are not polarized by scattering.

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