Atticus Rare Books

A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of Hidden Variables, Parts I and II, in The Physical Review, 85 (1952) [HIDDEN VARIABLES APPROACH TO QUANTUM THEORY]

Bohm, David

Lancaster: American Physical Society, 1952. 1st Edition. Full volume. FIRST EDITION OF DAVID BOHM'S DETERMINISTIC 'HIDDEN VARIABLES APPROACH TO QUANTUM THEORY.' Bohm's 'Hidden Variables' interpretation is the basis of the De Broglie-Bohm Theory (or Bohmian Mechanics) and extends the Pilot Wave Theory to cover multiple particles. Bohm published an account of quantum theory that was fully deterministic, but which gave exactly the same experimental predictions as those of conventional quantum mechanics. In this theory, probabilities arise from ignorance of certain details. This remarkable discovery led John Bell to re-examine von Neumann's argument stating that this was impossible and to exhibit the flawed assumption on which this erroneous conclusion had been based" (Polkinghorne, Quantum Theory).

ALSO included, Bohm and Pine's seminal quartet of papers, "A Collective Description of Electron Interactions: II. Collective vs. Individual Particle Aspects of the Interactions." The papers illustrate the Bohm-Pines idea that the physics of the electron fluid can be divided up into high-energy collective "plasmon modes" and low energy electron quasiparticles. In this landmark group of papers, Bohm and Pines realized that they could separate the strongly interacting gas via a unitary transformation into two well-separated sets of excitations, high-energy collective oscillations of the electron gas, called plasmons, and low energy electrons. The Pines-Bohm paper is a progenitor of the idea of renormalization: the idea that high-energy modes of the system can be successively eliminated to give rise to a renormalized picture of the residual low energy excitations. Part II present here specifically breaks the theoretical practice into six elements.

ALSO: C. N. Yang's seminal paper "The Spontaneous Magnetization of a Two-Dimensional Ising Model" in which the model is calculated exactly with the result also giving the long-range order in the lattice. This is the first publication of a derivation for the square lattice and Yang's proof is considered a mathematical tour-de-force.

ALSO included are the following other papers of import: Deutsch and Brown's letter "Zeeman Effect and Hyperfine Splitting of Positronium" and Bethe and Butler's "A Proposed Test of the Nuclear Shell Model.”. Item #1596

CONDITION & DETAILS: Lancaster: American Physical Society. Volume 85, 1952. (10.5 x 8 inches; 262 x 200mm). Ex-libris bearing only small plates on front and rear paste downs; no markings whatsoever on the spine. Tightly and solidly bound in black buckram; gilt-lettered at the spine. Bright and clean inside and out. Near fine condition.

Price: $450.00