Donald Perkins proposed the use of beams of pion particles in cancer therapy and made seminal discoveries about the structure of the protons and nuclear interactions. His career spanned the birth of particle physics, as it emerged from studies of cosmic rays in the 1940s, through its maturation in the final decades of the last century, and finally its discovery in the 21st. He played a number of important roles.
The electron, protons and neutron were the only fundamental particles that were understood when Perkins began research. Cecil Powell of Bristol University discovered the pion, a particle that is predicted to bind atomic nuclei, and it was in his group that Perkins started his research career.
Powell was the first to use photographic emulsions. To get the best access to the rays, the technique involved going to high altitudes, or using specially adapted weather balloons. GP Thomson was Perkins supervisor and he asked him to arrange a flight to take Perkins photo up to 30,000 feet.
Several important images of pions were obtained by Perkins. He obtained evidence that the pion is unstable after observing the nuclear capture. The study of elementary particles by the photographic method was the state of the art in the field. The first suggestion of using pion beams as a cancer therapy was made in 1961.
The birth of high-energy particle physics can be traced back to discoveries in the universe. It was suspected that most of these are not fundamental, but it wasn't until 1968 that it was proven. electrons were used to probe inside the protons and neutrons. In 1972, an insight by Perkins helped establish that the fundamental constituents are quarks.
The discovery of the neutrino was one of the most important particle discoveries of the 20th century. The sibling of the electron caught his attention. After becoming professor of elementary particle physics at Oxford University in 1965, he built the modern department of nuclear physics with Denys Wilkinson and Ken Allen. Two breakthrough discoveries inspired the modern model of particles and forces.
In 1968, Perkins convinced a newly formed collaborative team using the Gargamelle bubble chamber that beams of neutrinos could provide a better view of the protons. The data enabled the electric charges of the constituents to be measured. The quarks that make up the protons and the quarks that make up the neutrons are bound together. The modern quantum chromodynamics theory of the strongly interacting particles was developed by this time.
The strength of the nuclear force was known, but the weakness of it remained a mystery. Thanks to Perkins and the Gargamelle group, a novel theory unifying the weak force with the electromagnetic force has been confirmed. Neutrinos are probes of weakness. They were known to pick up electric charge when interacting with protons, but the emergence of a new theory required the existence of a previously unseen consequence of the weak force.
The Gargamelle experiment played a leading role in establishing the existence of neutral currents, which paved the way for confirmation of the unified theory. The W and Z bosons were not discovered at the time of their award. The Gargamelle results were considered sufficient proof by the committee.
A member of the scientific policy committee from 1981 to 1986 and the chair from 1986 to 1986, Perkins was involved in the construction of the Large Electron-Positron collider. The long march to find its fulcrum began after the standard model was established The introduction to high energy physics textbook was first published in 1972 and is still in use today.
Donald's parents were teachers of English and maths and he was born in Hull. He obtained a degree in physics from Imperial College London in 1945 and his PhD in 1948. He was an associate in physics at the University of Bristol after working as a senior scholar at the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. He returned to Bristol in 1956 as a lecturer in physics after a year at the Lawrence radiation laboratory in Berkeley. He was a fellow of St Catherine's College at Oxford University from 1966 to 1993
He was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1966 and received a Royal medal in 1997. He was made a Commander of the British Empire.
The couple wed in 1955. He is survived by their two daughters.
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