QUANTUM FIELD THEORY

BOHR, NIELS. & LÉON ROSENFELD. + LEV LANDAU & RUDOLF PEIERLS.

[Three papers] 1. Zur Frage der Messbarkeit der elektomagnetischen Feldgrössen. + 2. Erweiterung des Unbestimmtheitsprinzips für die relativistische Quantentheorie. + 3. Field and Charge Measurements in Quantum Electrodynamics.

Copenhagen, Levin & Munksgaard, 1933. + Berlin, Springer 1931. + Lancaster, American Physical Society, 1950.
First paper: Published as no. 8 of vol. 12 in 'Kgl. Dankse Vid. Selsk. Math.-Fys. Medd.'. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. With the ownership signature of Danish physicist Mogens Pihl (Prof. of physics at Copenhagen University 1957-77). 65,(1) pp.
Second paper: Published in 'Zeitschrift für Physik', vol. 69, pp.56-69. The entire volume in contemporary half cloth offered here.
Third paper: Published in 'The Physical Review', vol. 78, no. 6, pp.794-798. The entire issue in original printed wrappers offered here. With rubber stamp of Danish physicist Christian Møller (Author of "The Theory of Relativity, 1952").

First editions of these fundamental papers in the development of quantum field theory. The process of measuring electromagnetic fields involves the observation of charged test bodies in those fields. Therefore the theory of electrodynamics is an inseparable extension of mechanics. A quantum theory of fields thus inherits, in some form, the limitations of measurement which lie at the foundation of quantum mechanics. In 1931 Landau and Peierls published a critical analysis of the consequences of such limitations in a relativistic quantum theory of fields (second paper offered). Landau and Peierls came to the negative conclusion that in several cases, the concept of momentum was without physical meaning and quantities such as the strength of a field was un-measurable. In their famous paper from 1933 Bohr and Rosenfeld (first paper offered) carefully reviewed the arguments of Landau and Peierls and showed, through the use of particular measuring arrangements, that a consistent quantum theory of fields is possible without further limitations than the ones which secure the consistency of quantum mechanics. The BR-paper is often credited with having laid the foundation for quantum electrodynamics. Bohr continued his work in this field, and in 1937 he completed a manuscript entitled "Field and Charge Measurement in Quantum Theory", but this was never published. When, in the late 1940s the important work on QED by Tomonaga, Schwinger, Dyson, and Feynman appeared in The Physical Review, Bohr and Rosenfeld again joined and published the essentials of the 1937 manuscript in the same journal (third paper offered).

See Abraham Pais: Bohr's Times, pp.358-364. Mehra & Rechenberg: The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, vol. 6, pp.697-703. Collected Works of Niels Bohr, vol. 7, pp.3-33.

Order-nr.: 35750