Radiative processes involving fast mesons

Abstract

The general theory of the interaction of mesons with an electromagnetic field is developed, starting from Kemmer’s matrix formulation of the meson equations. The general theory is applied to the scattering of light by mesons, the emission of radiation by mesons during collisions and the production of pairs of mesons. A brief discussion of the experimental results on the energy losses of “heavy electrons” in cosmic rays is given, and it is shown that the experiments are consistent with the view that the heavy electrons have spin 1 and that the theory of the interaction of mesons with an electromagnetic field is probably valid for energies considerably greater than the rest energy of a meson.