Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

In 1925-26, the late Max Born gave two sets of lectures at M.I.T., one on the structure of the atom, the other on the lattice theory of rigid bodies. Problems of Atomic Dynamics contains the text of both sets.

What gives this volume its remarkable interest is just those dates: 1925-26. This must have been, by all accounts, the headiest period in twentieth-century physics, and Max Born was one of the leaders of the ferment. As Norbert Wiener remembers, "When Professor Born came to the United States [for these lectures in 1925] he was enormously excited about the new basis Heisenberg had just given for the quantum theory of the atom."

These lectures represent perhaps the most vivid written record of the transition between the "old" quantum theory of Bohr, and the "new" theory. "At the time I began this course of lectures," Born writes, "Heisenberg's first paper on the new quantum theory had just appeared. Here his masterly treatment gave the quantum theory an entirely new turn. The paper of Jordan and myself, in which we recognized the matrix calculus as the proper formulation of Heisenberg's ideas, was in press, and the manuscript of a third paper by the three of us was almost completed."

Even as the lecture series progressed, Born became familiar with new results, which he introduced into his presentation: Pauli's fourth quantum number, Dirac's formalism, his own work on a general operational calculus. And yet, in spite of the conditions of revolutionary changes in physics that year--in which established ancient regime principles were collapsing almost monthly--the theory is developed with a cool elegance and with a formal completeness which may be regarded as a "limiting case" of its current state. These lectures represent the foundations of quantum theory, and they have withstood the tests of time--the tests of more than forty years of experimental evidence.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Foreword(p. vii)
• Preface(p. ix)
• Series I The Structure of the Atom
• Lecture 1 (p. 1)
• Comparison between the classical continuum theory and the quantum theory -- Cheif experimental results on the structure of the atom -- General principles of the quantum theory -- Examples.
• Lecture 2 (p. 12)
• General Introduction to mechanics -- Canonical equations and canonical transformations.
• Lecture 3 (p. 21)
• The Hamilton-Jacobi partial differential equation -- Action and angle variables -- The quantum conditions.
• Lecture 4 (p. 25)
• Adiabatic invariants -- The principle of correspondence.
• Lecture 5 (p. 32)
• Degenerate systems -- Secular perturbations -- The quantum integrals
• Lecture 6 (p. 38)
• Bohr's theory of the hydrogen atom -- Relativity effect and fine structure -- Stark and Zeeman effects.
• Lecture 7 (p. 47)
• Attempts towards a theory of the helium atom and reasons for their failure - Bohr's semi-empirical theory of the structure of higher atoms - The optical electron and the Rydberg-Ritz formula for spectral series -- The classification of series
• Lecture 8 (p. 54)
• Bohr's principle of successive building of atoms -- Arc and spark spectra -- Xray spectra -- Bohr's table of the complicated numbers of electrons in the stationary states.
• Lecture 9 (p. 60)
• Sommerfeld's inner quantum numbers -- Attempts toward their interpretation by the atomic angular momentum -- Breakdown of the classical theory - Formal interpretation of spectral regularities -- Stoner's definition of subgroups in the periodic system
• Lecture 10 (p. 68)
• Introduction to the new quantum theory -- Representation of a coordinate by a matrix -- The elementary rules of matrix calculus
• Lecture 11 (p. 75)
• The commutation rule and its justification by a correspondence consideration -- Matrix functions and their differentiation with respect to matrix arguments.
• Lecture 12 (p. 79)
• The canonical equations of mechanics - Proof of the conservation of energy and of the "frequency condition" -- Canonical transformations -- The analogue of the Hamilton-Jacobi differential equation.
• Lecture 13 (p. 83)
• The example of the harmonic oscillator - Perturbation theory.
• Lecture 14 (p. 89)
• The meaning of external forces in the quantum theory and corresponding perturbation formulas -- Their application to the theory of dispersion.
• Lecture 15 (p. 94)
• Systems of more than one degree of freedom -- The commutation rules -- The analogue of the Hamilton-Jacobi theory -- Degenerate systems
• Lecture 16 (p. 99)
• Conservation of angular momentum -- Axial symmetrical systems and the quantization of the axial component of angular momentum.
• Lecture 17 (p. 106)
• Free systems as limiting cases of axially symmetrical systems -- Quantization of the total angular momentum -- Comparison with the theory of directional quantization -- Intensities of the Zeeman components of a spectral line -- Remarks on the theory of Ze
• Lecture 18 (p. 113)
• Pauli's theory of the hydrogen atom.
• Lecture 19 (p. 119)
• Connection with the theory of Hermitian forms -- Aperiodic motions and continuous spectra.
• Lecture 20
• Substitution of the matrix calculus by the general operational calculus for improved treatment of aperiodic motions -- Concluding remarks.
• Series II The Lattice Theory of Rigid Bodies
• Lecture 1 (p. 133)
• Classification of crystal properties -- Continuum and lattice theories -- Geometry of lattices
• Lecture 2 (p. 139)
• Molecular forces -- Polarizability of atoms -- Potential energy and inner forces -- Homogeneous displacements -- The conditions of equilibrium -- Exampies of regular lattices.
• Lecture 3 (p. 146)
• Elimination of inner motions -- Compressibility -- Elasticity and Hooke's law -- Cauchy 's relations -- Dielectric displacement and piezoelectricity -- Residual-ray frequencies.
• Lecture 4 (p. 155)
• Ionic lattices -- Kossel's and Lewis' theory -- Calculation of the lattice energy according to Madelung and Ewald.
• Lecture 5 (p. 163)
• The energy of the rock-salt lattice -- Repulsive forces -- Derivation of the properties of salt crystals from the properties of inert gases.
• Lecture 6 (p. 168)
• Experimental determination of the lattice energy by means of cyclic processes -- The electron affinity of halogens - Heat of dissociation of salt molecules -- Theory of molecular structure.
• Lecture 7 (p. 176)
• Chemical crystallography -- Coordination lattices -- Hund's theory of lattice types -- Molecule, radical and layer lattices.
• Lecture 8 (p. 183)
• Physical mineralogy -- The parameters of asymmetrical lattices -- The molecule lattice of hydrochloric acid -- Bragg's calculation of the rhombohedral angle of calcite -- Rutile and anatase - Influence of the polarizability on elastic and electric constan
• Lecture 9 (p. 189)
• Crystal optics -- Refraction and double refraction -- Optical activity -- Thermodynamics -- Quantum theory of specific heats -- Distribution of frequencies in phase space.
• Lecture 10 (p. 196)
• Thermal expansion and pyroelectricity -- Concluding remarks