FEYNMAN, Richard Phillips (1918-1988) - photo 1

FEYNMAN, Richard Phillips (1918-1988)

Lot 60
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 20 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1105556
Lot 60 | FEYNMAN, Richard Phillips (1918-1988)
Estimate value
£ 20 000 – 30 000
FEYNMAN, Richard Phillips (1918-1988)

‘Forces in molecules.’ Offprint from: Physical Review, Second Series, Vol. 56, No. 4. [Lancaster, PA & New York, NY: American Institute of Physics for the American Physical Society, 1939].

Extremely rare offprint, inscribed by the author, of Feynman’s senior undergraduate thesis at MIT, a fundamental discovery ‘that has played an important role in theoretical chemistry and condensed matter physics’ (Selected Papers, p.1). This is Feynman’s first published paper, written when he was just 21 years old. It is a remarkable work, documenting the first steps in original research of one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century: ‘Feynman was one of the most creative and influential physicists of the twentieth century. A veteran of the Manhattan Project of World War II and a 1965 Nobel laureate in physics, he made lasting contributions across many domains, from electrodynamics and quantum theory to nuclear and particle physics, solid-state physics, and gravitation’ (DSB).



In this paper, Feynman lays down what is now known as Feynman’s theorem or the Feynman-Hellmann theorem, by which once spatial distribution of electrons is determined by quantum mechanics by solving the Schrödinger equation, all the forces in the system can be calculated classically. Feynman cites no references, but expresses gratitude to Professor J.C. Slater and Dr W. Conyers Herring; the paper itself has been cited almost 2000 times. RBH lists no copy of any offprint of any of Feynman’s papers in Physical Review (where he published almost all of his most important work). Not on OCLC.



Large octavo (267 x 200mm). Pp. 4, pp. 340-343. Bifolium, as issued (faint and insignificant rust spots in top margin of first leaf, tiny nick to top margin of second leaf, otherwise near fine). Contained in cloth folder within custom calf box with gilt spine lettering (extremities faintly rubbed). Provenance: authorial inscription in pencil in top margin of first page (presented to:) – Robert Kinsel Smith (1920-1999, a fellow student and personal friend of Feynman’s at Princeton University; with an accompanying letter from Kinsel Smith’s son testifying to this provenance).

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