An Introduction to Quantum Theory.

scarce

First edition, the uncommon first book by an English mathematician who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics. An attractive copy with the publisher's subscription slip loosely inserted, and from the library of Dutch physicist and mathematician E.M. Bruins (1909-1990), with his unobtrusive blind stamp on the title.

George Frederick James Temple (1901-1992) studied at Birkbeck and then Imperial College London, earning his PhD with three papers on general relativity in 1926 and staying on to study the wave mechanics of the atom. 'In 1928 Paul Dirac published his equation for the electron, which removed an unexplained anomaly in the fit of wave mechanics with experiment, conformed with the requirements of relativity, and yet was not of the expected mathematical form. Temple saw this as a challenge' which he answered by 'by deriving Dirac's results in a more abstract algebraic way. Two highly original papers clarified the whole situation and established Temple as a first rank mathematician' (ODNB).

First edition, first impression; 8vo; publisher's subscription slip loosely inserted, diagrams within the text, light partial toning of the endpapers but overall contents clean; original alligator skin-patterned cloth, titles to spine and upper board gilt, spine rolled, cloth rubbed with a little wear at the extremities, scattered loss of size from the boards, a very good copy; 196pp.