Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

JF Ptak Science Books 

Oppenheimer, J.R. "Note on the Theory of the Interaction of Field and Matter".  Offprint:  Physical Review, pp461-477, Volume 35, No. 5, March 1, 1930.  Original wrappers. VG copy. $200

"Great interest in his colleagues was aroused by [this paper]..." so stated by J Mehra in his fabulous The Conceptual Completion and Extensions of Quantum Mechanics 1932-1941. Epilogue: Aspects of the Further Development of Quantum Theory 1942-1999, here.

 

A Foundation Paper in Quantum Mechanics

Introducing the Particle-Wave Duality and an Epochal Idea in Physics
        Nobel Prize Awarded for this work in 1929

“Louis de Broglie achieved a worldwide reputation for his discovery of the wave theory of matter, for which he received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1929. His work was extended into a full-fledged wave mechanics by Erwin Schrödinger and thus contributed to the creation of quantum mechanics. After an early attempt to propose a deterministic interpretation of his theory, de Broglie joined the Copenhagen school’s mainstream noncausal interpretation of the quantum theory."--Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Louis de Broglie. 3 papers in the Comptes Rendus, 1923, establishing the wave theory of matter.

• “Ondes et quanta. Note de M. Louis de Broglie, présentée par M. Jean Perrin. (Séance du 10 Septembre 1923),” pp. 507-510.

• “Quanta de lumière, diffraction et interférences. Note de M. Louis de Broglie, transmise par M. Jean Perrin. (Séance du 24 Septembre 1923),” pp. 548-551.

• “Les quanta, la théorie cinétique des gaz et le principe de Fermat. Note de M. Louis de Broglie, présentée par M. Deslandres. (Seance du 8 Octobre 1923),” pp. 630-32.
  

Paris, Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1923, the three papers with their original  wrappers in Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences, Tome 177, 1513 pp.  (All of the front wrappers for all of the weekly issues are bound in at the back.)  Bound in black cloth with marbled page edges. Gilt-stamped former library stamped at spine bottom, "U.S. Weather Bureau"; each wrapper has 1.5-inch oval stamp from the Weather Bureau; there is also a neat borrowing pocket on the front pastedown. (Condition:  the three papers all have an old vertical fold in the middle of the page, as do the wrappers, where the fold appears more like a line.  The paper used in the 1920's CR was inferior, or at least the many copies of the journal that I have seen have all appeared this way, and is browning along the edges and margins.)  Very good copy.  [SOLD]

"This idea [i.e. de Broglie's that matter might behave as waves] was tested and confirmed by Davisson and Germer in 1927... Thus the duality of both light and matter had been established, and physicists had to come to terms with fundamental particles which defied simple theories and demanded two sets of 'complementary' descriptions, each applicable under certain circumstances, but incompatible with one another." (Printing and the Mind of Man, 417).

De Broglie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1929  "for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons".

Book Catalog, 2012: the Sciences. Version 1.1 150 items.

JF Ptak Science Books

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Abrikosov,  A(lexi) A.  Methods of Quantum Field Theory in Statistical Physics.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall,  1963.  1st English.  Very fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.  Alexi A. Abrikosov received the Nobel for physics in 2003; this is a glorious copy of his important book.  $135

Aharoni,  J..  The Special Theory of Relativity.  Oxford,  1959.  1st edition.  8vo.  Blue cloth.  Fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.  Fine copy in the scarce dustjscket.   $100

Akhiezer,  A.I..  Quantum Electrodynamics.  New York:  John WIley, Interscience,  1965.  Revised.  868pp  8vo.  Cloth.  Fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.  $100

 Alt, Franz.  "Bell Telephone Laboratories Computing Machine--I+II."  Washington DC:  National Research Council,  1948.  1st edition.  Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, III/21  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  $750.00

Kirchhoff's Law and the Birth of Quantum Mechanics, 1860

JF Ptak Science Books

This paper is the "key to the whole thermodynamics of radiation. In the hands of Planck, Kirchhoff's successor to the Berlin chair, it proved to be the key to the new world of the quanta, well beyond Kirchhoff's conceptual horizon." [Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol VIII, page 382.]

KIRCHHOFF, G. (GUSTAV ROBERT) "Über das Verhältnis zwischen dem Emissionsvermögen und dem Absorptionsvermögen der Körper für Wärme und Licht.  WITH:  "Über die Frauenhofer'schen Linien."

In Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Hrsg. von J.C. Poggendorff, series II, band 109;  X,660 pp. and 4 folded engraved plates. Kirchhoff's papers: pp. 275-301 and pp. 148-150. Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1860.

Formerly from the Library of Bernhard Meining; then, the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; and on the USAAF library at Wright PAtterson, and finally to the Library of Congress.  Very well traveled.  $1500

Works by Erwin Schroedinger

JF Ptak Science Books

Schrodinger,  Erwin.  Die Erfuellbarkeit der Relativitatsfoderung in der Klassischen Mechanik.  Leipzig:  Johannes Barth,  1925.  1st edition.  Annalen der Physik, series 4 volume 77  Pp 325-336, 785pp overall  8vo.  Cloth-backed paper covered boards.  Very good condition.  Rubberstamps on page edges from Wright Patterson Technical Library; rubber stamp interior for the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung (w/small swastika).  Contains "Die Wasserstoffahnlichen Spektren vom Standpunkte der Polarisierbarkeit des Atomrumpfes" by Schroedinger, as well as other articles by Stark, Lau, Kossel, Wien, and many others.   $500.00

Schroedinger,  Erwin.  Undulatory Theory of the Mechanics of Atoms and Molecules.  Minneapolis:  American Physical Society,  1926.  The Physical Review: Issue for December 1926, 28/6  Wrappers.  Very good condition.  Good solid copy, the edges of the wrappers a little rounded from use; library stamp (faded) on front wrapper. Small chips out on top and bottom of spine.  A solid copy. $750

Abstract of the paper as it appears in American Physical Society's PROLA: "E. Schrödinger; Received 3 September 1926; published in the issue dated December 1926. The paper gives an account of the author's work on a new form of quantum theory. §1. The Hamiltonian analogy between mechanics and optics. §2. The analogy is to be extended to include real "physical" or "undulatory" mechanics instead of mere geometrical mechanics. §3. The significance of wave-length; macro-mechanical and micro-mechanical problems. §4. The wave-equation and its application to the hydrogen atom. §5. The intrinsic reason for the appearance of discrete characteristic frequencies. §6. Other problems; intensity of emitted light. §7. The wave-equation derived from a Hamiltonian variation-principle; generalization to an arbitrary conservative system. §8. The wave-function physically means and determines a continuous distribution of electricity in space, the fluctuations of which determine the radiation by the laws of ordinary electrodynamics. §9. Non-conservative systems. Theory of dispersion and scattering and of the "transitions" between the "stationary states." §10. The question of relativity and the action of a magnetic field. Incompleteness of that part of the theory."  

Schroedinger,  Ernst.  Energieaustausch nach der Wellenmechanik.  Leipzig:  Annalen der Physik,  1927.  1st printing.  Annalen der Physik 4/83, 1927  Pp 956-968  8vo.  Modern cloth.  Fine condition.  This is the pioneering effort that preceded the great pioneering effort of von Neumann (November 1927) connecting thermodynamics and quantum mechanics (according to J. Mehra in the sixth volume of his tremendous The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, volume 6: the Completion of Quantum Mechanics).

We offer the entire volume (1236pp) with the Schroedinger contribution. There are two elegant rubberstamps on the title page--(a) library of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut fuer Physik, and (b) library of the Inst of Spectroscopy at the Max Planck Ges. Institute  $450.00

Dyson's Great S-Matrix QED Paper, 1949

Dyson,  Freeman.  "S Matrix in Quantum Electrodynamics."  American Physical Society,  1949.  1st edition.  The Physical Review. vol 75 (11), June 1, 1949  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition. Quite scarce in the original wrappers.   $850

Dyson's famous and important contribution occupies pp 1736-1756 in this issue, which is very uncommon in the original green wrappers. Reprinted in The Physical Review - the First Hundred Years, AIP Press (1995) CD-ROM, and also in Selected Papers on Quantum Electrodynamics, editor J. Schwinger, Dover Publications, Inc., New York (1958)

"Received 24 February 1949 The covariant quantum electrodynamics of Tomonaga, Schwinger, and Feynman is used as the basis for a general treatment of scattering problems involving electrons, positrons, and photons. Scattering processes, including the creation and annihilation of particles, are completely described by the S matrix of Heisenberg. It is shown that the elements of this matrix can be calculated, by a consistent use of perturbation theory, to any desired order in the fine-structure constant. Detailed rules are given for carrying out such calculations, and it is shown that divergences arising from higher order radiative corrections can be removed from the S matrix by a consistent use of the ideas of mass and charge renormalization. Not considered in this paper are the problems of extending the treatment to include bound-state phenomena, and of proving the convergence of the theory as the order of perturbation itself tends to infinity."   From the American Physical Society's PROLA website. 

Hemrann Weyl.  Zur quantentheoretischen Berechnung molekularer Bindungsenergien.  Offprint:  Nachrichten der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. 1930.  Pp 285-294.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good copy. 

ALso, with Part II.  1931.  Pp 33-39.  Good copy.  Original wrappers. 

The two papers:  $175

Richard C. Tolman.  "A General Theory of Energy Partition with Applications to Quantum Theory".  In: The Physical Review, volume XI, second series, number 4, pp 261-276 (in the volume of pp 253-337).  Original printed wrappers.  Good copy.  $125

Freeman J. Dyson.  "Heisenberg Operators in Quantum Electrodynamics, I."  Offprint: The Physical Review, vol 82, no 3, pp 428-439, May 1, 1951.  Fine copy in the original wrappers.  $225

Ludwik Silberstein.  "Contribution to the Quantum Theory of Spectrum Emission: Spectra of Atomic Systems Containing a Complex Nucleus."  Offprint:  Philosophical Magazine, vol xxxix, January 1920. 

Original printed wrappers.pp 46-66.  Inscribed, "with the author's best regards, 21.I.1920".  $125

Silberstein was as we all know an interesting thinker, working early and with some elegance in relativity, though he did run into a spot of bother with Einstein in which the good Dr. Silberstein fared not so well. I've always rather "liked" Silberstein for his early work.