Jie's Abstract
Abstract
The kinetic theory of temperature is a theory describing the amount of thermal energy in a particle. The effects of thermal energy can usually only be seen as an average of millions of billions of particles working together. Statistical physics describes temperature variation as an exponential function, with very few particles with a large amount of thermal energy and many particles with very small amounts of thermal energy. This experiment takes advantage of that theory to detect single particles. It uses a new photon detector called an SiPM (Silicon Photomultiplier). The SiPM works like a mousetrap, storing a large amount of energy. A single particle could have enough energy to cause the SiPM to release the all of its stored up energy. This energy is then detected and this is the detection of the thermal energy of an individual particle.