(With Commentary)
This book is a collection of the major scientific papers of Sir Rudolf Peierls (1907–95), including the Peierls–Frisch Memoranda of 1940 on the feasibility, and the predicted human effects, of an atomic bomb made of uranium-235. His papers range widely in topic. They include much on the fundamentals of solid state physics, the thermal and electric conductivity of materials as a function of temperature T (especially T→0), the interpretation of the de Haas–van Alphen effect observed for a metal in a magnetic field, and the basics of transport theory. Many are on problems in statistical mechanics, including his constructive paper demonstrating the existence of a phase transition for Ising's model for a two-dimensional ferromagnet. In nuclear physics, they include the first calculations (with Bethe) on the photo-disintegration of the deuteron (made in response to a challenge by Chadwick), the Kapur–Peierls theory of resonance phenomena in nuclear reactions, the Bohr–Peierls–Placzek continuum model for complex nuclei (which first explained the narrow resonances observed for low energy neutrons incident on very heavy nuclei), and the Peierls–Thouless variational approach to collective phenomena in nuclei. Several of Peierls's wartime papers, now declassified, are here published for the first time. Brief commentaries on most of the papers in this book were added by Peierls, to indicate subsequent developments and their relationship with other work, or to correct errors found later on. A complete bibliography of his writings is given as an appendix. Contents:Theory of the Hall EffectKinetic Theory of Thermal Conduction in Crystals: Theory of Electric and Thermal Conductivity of MetalsTheory of the Diamagnetism of Conduction ElectronsQuantum Theory of the Diplon (Deuteron)Ising's Model of FerromagnetismDispersion Formula for Nuclear ReactionsCritical Conditions for Neutron MultiplicationThe Peierls–Frisch Memorandum of 1940Commutation Laws of Relativistic Field TheoryField Equations in Functional FormCollective Model of Nuclear MotionTwo-Stage Model of Fermi InteractionsComplex Eigenvalues in Scattering TheoryResonance States and Their UsesMomentum and Pseudomomentum of Light and SoundBroken Symmetriesand other papers Readership: Nuclear, condensed matter and theoretical physicists. keywords:Frisch-Peierls Memoranda;U235;Implosion;Plutonium;Heat Conductivity;Los Alamos;Photodisintegration;Ising-Model;Peierls-Transition;Bohr-Peierls-Placzek Model;Heat Conductivity;Nuclear Physics “This book gives a fascinating picture of the early development of quantum mechanics … If you want your library to have good source material on the history of modern theoretical physics you should see that it acquires this book.” D Thouless University of Washington, Seattle “The book is well produced and a worthy volume in its Series. It is to be recommended for acquisition by libraries and scholars with interests in its subject matter.” Mathematical Reviews
This book is a collection of the major scientific papers of Sir Rudolf Peierls (1907-95), including the Peierls-Frisch Memoranda of 1940 on the feasibility, and the predicted human effects, of an atomic bomb made of uranium-235.
