ROSSI, Bruno  H. S. Bridge, H. Courant, H. DeStaebler, Jr. “Possible Example of the Annihilation of a Heavy Particle” in Physical Review, 95 No. 4 pp. , 1101-1103, August 15, 1954). Original wrappers. Condition: the spine has been repaired, and there’s a name on the front cover. A very nice copy. Solid VG. $250

This is the report on first tentative sighting of an antiproton annhilation. “In 1954, a team led by Italian physicist Bruno Benedetto Rossi (1905–1993) observed an unusual cloud chamber event in which a singly charged particle decayed into three photons whose energies totaled more than the proton rest energy, the signature of an antiproton annihilation.”

“Rossi…was an Italian experimental physicist. He made major contributions to particle physics and the study of cosmic rays. A 1927 graduate of the University of Bologna, he became interested in cosmic rays. To study them, he invented an improved electronic coincidence circuit, and traveled to Eritrea to conduct experiments that showed that cosmic ray intensity from the West was significantly larger than that from the East. During World War II, Rossi worked on radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and he played a pivotal role in the Manhattan Project, heading the group at the Los Alamos Laboratory that carried out the RaLa Experiments. After the war, he was recruited by Jerrold Zacharias at MIT, where Rossi continued his pre-war research into cosmic rays. In the 1960s, he pioneered X-ray astronomy and space plasma physics. His instrumentation on Explorer 10 detected the magnetopause, and he initiated the rocket experiments that discovered Scorpius X-1, the first extra-solar source of X-rays.–Wikipedia