High energy physics in Poland: the first 50 years

High energy physics in Poland started in 1933 when Stanislaw Ziemecki and Konstanty Narkiewicz-Jodko performed measurements of the latitude effect for cosmic rays. Subsequently, experiments with cosmic rays were carried out in balloon flights in a deep salt mine. Other Polish pioneers in this field were Ignacy Adamczewski, Czeslaw Bialobrzeski, Marian Miesowicz, Szczepan Szczeniowski and Jan Wesolowski. The ambitious 'Star of Poland' project of a stratospheric balloon flight to study cosmic rays up to an altitude of 30000 meters was not successful, first because of the fire accident and then of the outbreak of World War II. The destruction of laboratories during the war has slowed down the development of high energy physics in Poland by at least twelve years. However, in the late forties Marian Miesowicz started important cosmic ray studies in Cracow. In 1952 research using nuclear emulsions was initiated in Warsaw by Marian Danysz and Jerzy Pniewski. Two years later Marian Miesowicz and Jerzy Gierula began similar research in Cracow. In the late fifties Aleksander Zawadzki in Lodz started comprehensive studies of extensive air showers. Already in 1963 the number of experimental and theoretical papers on high energy physics published in Poland exceeded 100. Strong experimental and theoretical groups have been established in Cracow, Lodz and Warsaw. To supplement research with emulsions and bubble chambers the construction of electronic detectors for on-line experiments has been instituted. Thus, in the early eighties Polish high energy physicists were ready to participate in large projects such as DELPHI at LEP and ZEUS and H1 at HERA. The discovery of hypernuclei by Danysz and Pniewski in 1952 may be regarded as the most important achievement of physics in post-war Poland. (author). 108 refs, 26 figs, 1 tab