A transition radiation detector (TRD) is a particle detector using the -dependent threshold of transition radiation in a stratified material. It contains many layers of materials with different indices of refraction. At each interface between materials, the probability of transition radiation increases with the relativistic gamma factor. Thus particles with large give off many photons, and small give off few. For a given energy, this allows a discrimination between a lighter particle (which has a high and therefore radiates) and a heavier particle (which has a low and radiates much less).
Famous quotes containing the words transition and/or radiation:
“Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)