He is one of the scientists who make an effort to explain scientific findings to the public in an easy-to-understand way.
French physicist. He made studies on photoelectrons and cosmic rays. He was born on May 14, 1899, in Paris. After graduating from the Ecole Normale Superieur, he entered the University of Paris. He received his doctorate in 1926, and in 1927 he started to work as an assistant in the Faculty of Science. He became a professor at Sorbonne University in 1937. He served as a research assistant at the University of Chicago from 1941-1944. During World War II, he took part in the atomic energy research group in Canada. After returning to his country, he managed the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education until 1948. He was the director of the UNESCO Natural Sciences Department between 1948-1959. After 1960, he played an active role in the establishment of the European Space Research Organization. He was the general chairman of the organization between 1962-1964. Auger, who received various national and international awards for his research in these fields, has also worked to reflect scientific developments to the public.
Auger's research led to a better understanding of cosmic rays and photoelectric phenomena. The excess energy that occurs when an electron from the outer orbitals fills the space formed by the loss of an electron from the inner shell of an atom leads to X-ray emission. Auger showed that the loss of an electron in the inner shell can in some cases result in the emission of another electron instead of the X-ray.
Pierre Victor Auger (14 May 1899 – 24 December 1993) was a French physicist, born in Paris. He worked in the fields of atomic physics, nuclear physics, and cosmic ray physics. He is famous for being one of the discoverers of the Auger effect, named after him.
While examining the effects of X-rays in a Wilson chamber filled with hydrogen and argon gases in 1925, he came across short traces originating from the same points as well as the long traces created by photoelectrons. As a result of his research on this observation, he found that in some cases, the loss of an electron from the K shell was filled by a second electron in another shell, and the excess energy during this transition led to the emission of another electron in a third shell. These electrons were called “Auger electrons” and the event was called the “Auger phenomenon”. Later, Perrin showed that the "Auger phenomenon" can occur multiple times in atoms with large atomic numbers.
One of the subjects Auger worked on intensively was cosmic rays. While examining the properties of these rays, he detected traces of very fast particles that could pass through a half-meter lead plate in a double expansion chamber and showed that these particles were not electrons. In 1936 C.D. With Anderson's discovery of the "muon", the nature of these particles could be understood. Concentrating his research on the "large showers", the most complex of cosmic ray events, Auger studied the role of these very fast particles in cosmic showers. With the help of Roland Maze, he suggested that many fast particles with an energy of 1015 electronvolts interacted with gases in the atmosphere to create this downpour. Auger's name is given to this downpour, which consists of photons, electrons, and positrons, as well as many fast particles. However, the source of the cosmic showers has not been fully resolved to date.