The Dutch scientist Hendrik Kramers (1894-1952) was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the twentieth century--and one of a mere handful who have made major contributions across the whole field. Physicists know his name from, among other things, the Kramers dispersion theory, the Kramers-Heisenberg dispersion formulae, the Kramers opacity formula, the Kramers degeneracy, and the Kramers-Kronig relations. Yet few people know more than the name, or recognize the full depth and range of his contributions. In this book, D. ter Haar seeks to change that. He presents for the first time anywhere a comprehensive discussion of Kramers's scientific work, and reprints twelve of his most important papers.
The author shows us that Kramers's remarkable and diverse work makes him at least the equal of such celebrated physicists as Fermi and Landau. He takes us through Kramers's groundbreaking research in such subjects as quantum theory, quantum electrodynamics, statistical mechanics, and solid-state physics. The papers he reprints include Kramers's derivation of the dispersion formulae that led to Heisenberg's matrix mechanics; his classic paper on the Brownian-motion approach to chemical reactions; a pioneering paper on polymers; and a paper on renormalization, a concept first introduced by Kramers and now one of the basic ideas of modern field theory.
This book will change how we view the course of twentieth-century science and will show that Kramers was indeed one of the masters of modern physics.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
< TR> Preface< TR> 1Introduction3< TR> 2The Old Quantum Theory9< TR> 3Quantum Mechanics31< TR> 4Quantum Electrodynamics59< TR> 5Statistical Mechanics, Solid-State Physics, and Low-Temperature Physics67< TR> 6The Kramers Problem and Polymer Physics93< TR> 7Miscellaneous Topics109< TR> AOn the Scattering of Radiation by Atoms121< TR> BSome Remarks on Heisenberg's Quantum Mechanics145< TR> CWave Mechanics and Half-Odd-Integral Quantisation151< TR> DThe Scattering of Light by Atoms163< TR> EGeneral Theory of Paramagnetic Rotation in Crystals173< TR> FClassical Relativistic Spin-Theory and Its Quantization187< TR> GOn the Eigenvalue Problem in a One-Dimensional Field of Force195< TR> HThe Use of Charge-Conjugated Wavefunctions in the Hole Theory of the Electron203< TR> IBrownian Motion in a Field of Force and the Diffusion Model of Chemical Reactions213< TR> JStatistics of the Two-Dimensional Ferromagnet231< TR> KFundamental Difficulties of a Theory of Particles249< TR> LThe Behavior of Macromolecules in Inhomogeneous Flow257< TR> References273< TR> Publications of H. A. Kramers277< TR> Index283
