FROM THE LIBRARY OF ACCLAIMED PHYSICIST RICHARD FEYNMAN: FIRST EDITION OF THEORY OF ATOMIC SPECTRA, RICHARD FEYNMAN'S OWN COPY BEARING HIS OWNER SIGNATURE AND HIS AUTOGRAPH ANNOTATIONS
(FEYNMAN, Richard P.) CONDON, E.U. and SHORTLEY, G.H. The Theory of Atomic Spectra. Cambridge: University Press, 1935. Quarto, original navy cloth. Housed in a cutom clamshell box.
First edition of this "monumental book… the most comprehensive account of our understanding of atomic spectra" (Reviews of Modern Physics). Richard Feyman's personal copy, bearing his stylized owner signature and his autograph annotations.
Published in 1935, "this book was the first complete theoretical treatment of atomic spectra based upon quantum mechanical principles. it has remained the only one and has served half a generation of atomic physicists as an indispensable source of information and as a guide in further detailed research" (Science, 116:3007, 1810). "Its power and thoroughness leave the general impression of a work of the first rank, which successfully unifies the existing state of our knowledge, and will prove for many years a starting point for further researches and an inspiration to those who may undertake them" (contemporary review, Nature). Without dust jacket. The annotations (and owner signature) are as follows: endpaper, "R.P. Feynman Cornell University Dept. of Physics" and "It is on page 76"; pages 52-53, "[equations relating to angular momentum]". American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman "was widely regarded as the most brilliant, influential, and iconoclastic figure in his field in the post-World War II era. Feynman remade quantum electrodynamics—the theory of the interaction between light and matter—and thus altered the way science understands the nature of waves and particles. He was co-awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965 for this work, which tied together in an experimentally perfect package all the varied phenomena at work in light, radio, electricity, and magnetism. The other cowinners of the Nobel Prize, Julian S. Schwinger of the United States and Tomonaga Shin'ichiro of Japan, had independently created equivalent theories, but it was Feynman's that proved the most original and far-reaching. The problem-solving tools that he invented—including pictorial representations of particle interactions known as Feynman diagrams—permeated many areas of theoretical physics in the second half of the 20th century" (Britannica). Condon and Shortley's Theory of Atomic Spectra was considered a foundational work on the atom and likely influenced the first of Feyman's famous Lectures (on atomic structure).
Interior with only a few spots of marginal soiling, only light wear and faintest soiling to cloth. Near-fine condition.