Marian Danysz (March 17, 1909 – February 9, 1983) was a Polish
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
, Professor of Physics at
Warsaw University
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
.
Son of
Jan Kazimierz Danysz
Jean Danysz (11 March 1884 – 4 November 1914) born Jan Kazimierz Danysz, was a French physicist of Polish extraction. He was an assistant of Maria Skłodowska-Curie and notable in the development of beta spectrometry.
Danysz made conside ...
. In 1952, he co-discovered with
Jerzy Pniewski
Jerzy Pniewski (June 1, 1913 – June 16, 1989) was a Polish physicist.
Pniewski was born in Płock.http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~ajduk/hyperakw.pdf He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Warsaw.
In 1952, he co-discovered the hypernu ...
a new kind of matter, an
atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, ...
ic nucleus, which alongside a
proton and
neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...
contains a third particle: the
lambda
Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave ri ...
hyperon
In particle physics, a hyperon is any baryon containing one or more strange quarks, but no charm, bottom, or top quark. This form of matter may exist in a stable form within the core of some neutron stars. Hyperons are sometimes generically re ...
().
Ten years later, they obtained a
hypernucleus
A hypernucleus is similar to a conventional atomic nucleus, but contains at least one hyperon in addition to the normal protons and neutrons. Hyperons are a category of baryon particles that carry non-zero strangeness quantum number, which is co ...
in excited state, and the following year a hypernucleus with two lambda hyperons.
20th-century Polish physicists
1909 births
1983 deaths
Fellows of the American Physical Society
French emigrants to Poland
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