An investigation of multiple scattering distribution functions for electrons in gases.

A semi-theoretical investigation has been made of a new effect arising in the multiple scattering of electrons in a gas. A statistical analysis has been made of the shapes of electron tracks in a Wilson expansion chamber by determining the distributions of certain features of the trajectories, these features being correlated with the shapes of the tracks. These distributions have been compared with similar distributions for simulated tracks of electrons undergoing: A) Kandom collisions, B) Non-random collisions of a particular type, and in the light of these results an indication has been made as to a probable explanation of the nature of the effect. No attempt has been made to formulate any complete theoretical explanation. It should be mentioned that although this account is divided into chapters there is extensive cross referring owing to the nature of the investigation. The general presentation is: SECTION 1.a) Analysis of the expansion chamber tracks (Preliminary theory and analysis) b) Simulation and analysis of electron tracks in a square lattice 2 c) Simulation and analysis of random tracks. SECTION 2. a) angular distributions. b) "Heads-tails" distributions. c) Area distributions. d) Discussion. The analyses mentioned in section 2 are described in detail in each chapter of section 1. The results of each analysis then appear and are discussed in the appropriate chapter of section 2. The appendices include a brief description of the apparatus used, details of the computer programmes employed in the analysis and an account of an investigation into proton channelling in crystals which was made possible by one of the existing computer programmes.