Cherenkov Radiation

From Physics Book
Revision as of 20:58, 2 December 2015 by Ajacob30 (talk | contribs) (→‎History)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Nikhil Shukla (nshukla30)

Sorry about this! Sent an email back - Alexis

Cherenkov radiation, named for Soviet Scientist Pavel A. Cherenkov, is a fascinating phenomena that occurs when charges move faster than light through a particular medium. One commonly recognized example of Cherenkov radiation is in nuclear reactors which have a characteristic blue glow as a result [1].

The Main Idea

Cherenkov Radiation is analogous to a "sonic-boom of light". There are two vital parts to Cherenkov Radiation. The first is a dielectric medium and the second is a a charged particle moving faster than the phase- velocity of light. A dielectric medium is simply a medium that is an insulator but can be polarized by an external electric field.

Electric Field of Capacitor

A Mathematical Model

A Computational Model

How do we visualize or predict using this topic. Consider embedding some vpython code here Teach hands-on with GlowScript

Examples

Be sure to show all steps in your solution and include diagrams whenever possible

Simple

Middling

Difficult

Connectedness

  1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?
  2. How is it connected to your major?
  3. Industrial applications?

History

Put this idea in historical context. Give the reader the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

See also

Are there related topics or categories in this wiki resource for the curious reader to explore? How does this topic fit into that context?

Further reading

Books, Articles or other print media on this topic

External links

Internet resources on this topic

References