Prof. Dr. Samuel C. Ting

Research Priorities: Elementary-particle physics, quarks, charm quarks, photon-matter interaction, J/psi particle, mesons, nuclear collisions, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), International Space Station (ISS), anti-matter
Samuel Chao Chung Ting is an US-American physicist. His research priorities include elementary-particle physics, the elementary particles known as quarks, and the interaction of photons and matter. He and the American physicist Burton Richter jointly received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the subatomic particle J/psi.
The J/psi particle is a heavy meson (subatomic particle). Mesons are created in the first phase following a nuclear collision, for example in particle-accelerator experiments. The J/psi particle owes its double name to the two researchers Ting and Richter, who worked independently of one another. Ting and his group used a particle accelerator at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, while Burton and his team used one at Stanford. Both discovered new particles when particles collided – and gave them different names: Ting named it the J-particle, Burton psi. The new particle retained both names and, compared to other mesons, proved extremely durable. This indicated a new type of quark – a charm quark – an elementary particle that had already been theoretically predicted. Thanks to the discovery of the new particle, Ting and Richter proved the quark’s existence.
Furthermore, Samuel C. Ting discovered the anti-nuclear matter of the anti-deuteron. An anti-deuteron is an anti-nucleus which consists of a bound state of an anti-proton and an anti-neutron. This is the anti-particle of the deuteron, a form of heavy hydrogen. In addition, he and his research group successfully carried out a precision measurement of muon charge asymmetry, demonstrating for the first time the validity of the Standard Electroweak Model (Weinberg, Glashow and Salam). This model is based on a weak electromagnetic force that unites the gauge group SU(2) × U(1). The gauge bosons, initially massless, obtain their required mass vie spontaneous symmetry breaking.
In recent years Ting has led and advanced the development of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) at the particle research centre CERN. The AMS has been used at the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, where it measures cosmic rays and, in particular, detects particles consisting of anti-matter (positrons).