OPPENHEIMER, Robert.
The Problems of the Interaction of Elementary Particles.
The Problems of the Interaction of Elementary Particles.
Transcriptions of lectures by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer. Given at the California Institute of Technology.
Stock Code 117245
Pasadena, CA, January, 1950.
the midwife of qed
The rare mimeographed text of a series of six of lectures on particle physics and quantum electrodynamics presented at Caltech between January 16th and 27th, 1950, the precursor to Richard Feynman's Quantum Electrodynamics and Meson Theories lectures. WorldCat locates only one institutional copy, at Caltech, and none appear in auction records.Though best known for leading the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer made important contributions to both particle physics and quantum electrodynamics, notably predicting the existence of the positron and serving as 'midwife' to the Tomonaga-Schwinger-Feynman construction of quantum electrodynamics, the first theory to reconcile Einstein's special relativity with quantum mechanics. The present talks were presented at the moment of QED's formalisation and the physics community's collective turn towards particle physics as the new frontier (Monk, Inside the Center: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 540).
As Oppenheimer explains in the first lecture, his January course will be relatively introductory and non-mathematical, in part because it will be followed immediately by a more technical series by Feynman, the important Quantum Electrodynamics and Meson Theories lectures presented in February and March the same year. Also made available in mimeographed form, Feynman's series is somewhat more common institutionally and on the market than Oppenheimer's.
86-page wire-stitched mimeographed text, rectos only, three punched holes, contemporary ownership signature on the title, faintly toned along the edges, final leaf detached, housed in a blue cloth folding case, very good condition.
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