A Little Positron Music

Can you make music out of the particle tracks of positrons passing through the detector in a particle accelerator? Most positively so!

Behold, the smallest music in the universe:

Positrons – antiparticles of electrons, a trillionth of a meter in size – make no sound. But with a little help from the grid, music composer Domenico Vicinanza is giving positrons a voice to lift in song.

Now, Vicinanza has delved into the sub-atomic realm and is creating a musical score from the particle tracks made within bubble chambers and Wilson cloud chambers. [...]

This new process involves drawing the bubble or cloud chamber particle tracks directly onto music sheets. Each track contour will provide a path for musical notes to be overlaid upon. Then, he will write the melodies and program customized software to harmonize the tracks in an automated way. The software will be submitted to the grid so that the sounds can be processed into an audible masterpiece.

“My plan is to sonify some of the early tracks recorded with cloud chambers. I was thinking of a piano trio,” said Vicinanza.

According to Vicinanza, the symmetrical beauty of tracks made by a particle and its antiparticle in a bubble chamber creates a unique musical tone.

“Displays of these events are perfectly symmetric tracks spiraling in opposite directions. Their sonification will be two symmetric melodies, moving in opposite directions,” Vicinanza said.

So, what do positronic music sound like? Listen and then read the rest of the article over at International Science Grid This Week: Link - via Wired