Initialled autograph letter correcting a young colleague's work.

einstein letter

Initialled autograph letter by Albert Einstein correcting the work of a graduate student who would become a prominent member of the theoretical physics community.

Turkish physicist Behram Kurşunoğlu (1922-2003) studied in Edinburgh and completed his doctoral work at Cambridge under Paul Dirac during the late 1940s and early 1950s. He specialised in relativity and unified field theories, participated in the discovery of two neutrinos, and founded the Center for Theoretical Studies at the University of Miami.

In his initial letter to Einstein written on November 24th, 1950, Kurşunoğlu writes that he is 'enclosing you a note on the possibility of a slight modification of the unified field theory. I shall be very grateful, if you can kindly read it. I hope it is not inconsistent with the ideas of the theory. I apologise for disturbing you'.

Einstein replies in detail on the verso of Kurşunoğlu's letter, returning it and the accompanying manuscript (no longer together with the letter) with a covering note by his secretary Helen Dukas. Einstein writes,

'Equ (1) is not solved by (5) or (6). You have overlooked, that not both equations yiky^hk=δil and yiky^kl=δy^e can hold. I have defined the contravariant y by the first of these equations - The non-existence of a practical solution for the T is no logical objection to the theory. The really problematic point of the theory lies in the compatibility of the equations for the T. E.'

In 1952 Kurşunoğlu published a paper in the Physical Review, 'Gravitation and Electrodynamics', in which 'Einstein's unified field theory is modified, and some of the physical implications of the new theory are examined' (Physical Review volume 88, number 1369, December 15th, 1952).

Ten-line autograph letter with initial on cream laid paper (14 x 22.5 cm), on the verso of an autograph letter by Behram Kurşunoğlu, together with a typed letter signed by Helen Dukas on Institute for Advanced Study stationery (16.5 x 14 cm) and a later letter from Dukas dated 1979; a few tiny spots, excellent condition.