Accelerated charges radiate.
This bubble chamber picture,
which is a few times smaller than life-size, illustrates several phenomena:
- Charged particles leaving trails of bubbles in their path
as they force their way through a specially prepared liquid (a
super-heated mixture of neon and hydrogen).
- Moving charged particles (electric currents) experiencing forces
in a magnetic field.
- Electron (and anti-electron or positron) tracks curling up in a
characteristic way.
- High energy gamma-rays (or photons) materialising into
electron-positron pairs (in the field of a nucleus).
- Accelerating (they are turning and therefore not moving in a
straight line with steady speed) electrons and positrons emitting
high energy photons (tangentially) - which then do something to
herald their existence.
More detailed discussion.>
GTJ; 16 March 1998